Shadowchasers: Conspiracy
by Cyber Commander
Summary: A fanfic of the Shadowchasers by Cyber Commander. Odd things are happening, and Shadowchasers all over the world are encountering criminals with strange and peculiar goals. Is a conspiracy afoot, or is some deeper plot in the works?
1. Prologue

_Greetings, true believers!_

_Okay, now that I've tried – and failed miserably – to channel Stan Lee…_

_It's been a long couple of months, and I've been rather active. Like I said before, I was surprised at how well-received my remake of "Thousand Year Door" was, and I can safely say, it was in no way as bad as the remake of _Charlie's Angels. _(Followers of my work dedicated enough to have read the whole thing will "get" that joke.)_

_Anyway, let's get the boring stuff out of the way. The _Yu-Gi-Oh _trading card game and anime is copyrighted and owned by Konami. (I'll have to make other disclaimers before this is over, but we'll cross those brides when we come to it.) This particular fanfiction uses current rules for the TCG game (including the American version of the Forbidden/Limited List) and the new rules for game structure have not been applied to this fic. (They were introduced as I was planning it.)_

_One small warning: note the rating. If you find this fic to be "darker and edgier" than most of my previous fics, that was the intent. _

_Now, a lot of people are asking just how much of the admittedly vague trailer was accurate. Well, you have to take into account the guy who was speaking at the time, and how trustworthy and reliable he is. _

_If I recall, I promised to tell you just who he was, but… I think I'll let him speak for himself…_

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_What are dreams? What does this strange link from the conscious mind to the subconscious tell the dreamer? Are they portents from dark and distant futures, ominous warnings of things to come? Or are they vestiges from the past, the dying whispers of ancestors, hoping that their heroic bloodlines survive in the generations to come? _

_Maybe both? Only the gods know for sure…_

_Last night, I dreamed a vivid tale of past events, a terrible, harrowing story of deception and betrayal. I thought I had shelved it to the farthest vaults of my mind, as it was something I had wanted so much to forget, but now, it appeared before my eyes so clearly, so plainly, pleading, demanding to be told one last time. I was left with little choice but to put it to paper with annotations…_

_Why? Call it a confession. It is a story I cannot deny my involvement in. _

**Shadowchasers**

**Conspiracy**

**A Fanfiction by Cyber Commander**

_Before the story I must pen begins, I must relate one that is well-known to my likely audience, which at the same time, is confusing, and has many mysteries and loose ends tied to it, one with many paths that have been explored for decades, all leading to dead ends. Perhaps I should say, many mortals on your world _think _they know this story, but just as many are uncertain of its key parts._

_On November 22__nd__, 1963, 12:30 PM local time, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President John F. Kennedy._

_Well, at least that's what the Warren Report, the U.S. government's official report of the crime, claims. While the tragic event happened so long ago, many Americans, and indeed, many humans in general, don't believe it, claiming it to be all lies, and that the truth behind the assassination was a cover-up._

_What was or _is_ the truth? It depends greatly on who you ask. Not only have enough books on alternate theories been written to fill a library, you could probably write a decent-sized one simply on the subject of all the theories._

_Some believe that the CIA was behind it. They were _very _angry at Kennedy over the whole mess with the Bay of Pigs. A name that comes up often with them in regards to this is __David Sánchez Morales, a CIA agent who had lost several friends and colleges in the failed invasion._

_Some suspect the Mafia. Attorney General Robert Kennedy had introduced many strict reforms against organized crime, and it stood to reason that killing his brother – the President – would be a subtle message for him to yield. Not to mention that the mob had lost a lot of business in Cuba when Castro took over, and might have blamed Kennedy for that._

_One powerful figure in organized crime mentioned more than others was Sam Giancana who may have had a lot of reasons for wanting Kennedy dead. There were allegations by the Republican Party that he rigged the Illinois elections so that Kennedy would win, and some believed he was upset now because of the tougher reforms (of course, even if Illinois' Electoral Votes had not gone to Kennedy, he still would have won), OR that Kennedy had stolen his girlfriend, OR that Giancana was involved in some plot to assassinate Castro… Again, it varies depending on who the speaker is._

_Then there was the theory that filmmaker Oliver Stone used, that the military-industrial complex was behind it, fearing the President would abandon South Vietnam to the communists, hurting their business. (You can blame the Red Scare on this. People those days saw a communist behind every tree, it seemed.)_

_Other popular theories to suspected masterminds: The KGB, who wanted revenge for being humiliated after the Cuban Missile crisis; Lyndon B. Johnson, who some thought feared would be dropped from the ticket in Kennedy's reelection; the Federal Reserve, who thought Executive Order 1110 was the beginning of a push to abolish them; the Cuban Exile community, who felt Kennedy had betrayed them at the Bay of Pigs (starting to see a trend here?); and on the flip side to that, Fidel Castro, who sought retaliation for constant attempts on his life. _

_There was even one theory that Oswald _did _act alone, but Kennedy was _not _his target. According to this one, his true intended victim was Texas Governor_ _John Connally (who was also in the car). Why? Well, Connally was then Secretary of the Navy, and some felt that Oswald may have held him responsible for his undesirable discharge from the Marines. Oswald's widow staunchly believed this one._

_Most theories include Jack Ruby, the vigilante who killed Oswald. They claim that he was "in on it", and had killed Oswald to silence him. Ruby was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but died in prison – from lung cancer, the coroner's report said – while his sentence was on appeal. _

_When you look at all these theories as a whole, you realize they can't ALL be right. They conflict and contradict each other in several areas. They only agree on one thing: The Warren Report is a sham, and the government was lying._

_Why don't these people trust the government?_

_Well… With conspiracy theories… That's often the case…_

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Marseilles, France, January 6th, 1451.

A day commonly called the Day of Fools.

An elderly man in priestly vestments sat at an oaken desk in a fancy presbytery**. **He wrote in a small journal with a quill pen.

He paused midway through a sentence. He stopped to listen. Then he shrugged.

"Meh…" he said, as he went back to writing.

Then he looked up in surprise, as the doorway was thrown open. A well-dressed man walked in, and two others wearing uniforms followed. (Oddly enough, despite the fact that the uniforms suggested soldiers, the two were unarmed.)

"Archdeacon!" shouted the first man.

"Are you upset about something, young man?" asked the elderly man, with a slight chuckle. "I mean, come now, this is a holiday, you know…"

"Only a holiday of humiliation, Lafore," replied the man.

The old man looked at the small scar under his eye. He had seen it before on Dimitri… But had only recently learned what it meant. He slowly put the quill in its inkwell.

"I'd much prefer to be addressed by my title, Monsieur…" he said, sounding a little angrier this time.

"I'm not certain you're worthy of it," asked Dimitri.

"Who do you think you're dealing with?" asked the man. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Actually…" said Dimitri.

He quickly held something up in front of him.

"…I have a better idea than most. Take a look at yourself, 'Archdeacon'."

Lafore gasped. It was a mirror. And seeing his reflection… It was something he _didn't _seem to like. He backed away from the three Shadowchasers, covering his face as he grunted in pain… His vestments slowly changed from the spotless vestments of a holy man to dark, tattered, robes…

Then he looked at Dimitri, his face now a bare skull with glowing, cold flames for eyes.

"So tell me, 'Archdeacon'," asked Dimitri, looking at the diabolist lich with a look of hate, "did _anyone _you ordered burned commit any crime? Or do you consider the fact you hated them enough of a reason?"

"Oh, I had a reason," hissed the monster, "one neither you nor that mongrel you work for could ever comprehend. The only regret I have now is that I didn't take care of you sooner…"

A ball of cold fire formed in his hand, and he hurled it at them… But then, a weighted metal club appeared in Dimitri's hand.

Lafore's eyes widened in horror as he realized what it was – a Mace of Disruption. But the realization that Dimitri had come prepared was a little too late. The Shadowchaser swung and a wave of pure, holy light enveloped the room.

Lafore's bolt was vaporized instantly, and right before that happened to him too, he realized he actually had _one_ more regret…

…that he had thought so lowly of these people. It seemed they had been smart enough to see through the ruse that no-one else had…

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_Freemasonry is an American fraternal organization that has had some very famous names among its members, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Andrew Jackson. Even today, the organization tends to recruit a lot of politicians and Washington power players. This tends to make a lot of people credit them with power and influence that don't really have. In Catholic countries, some people claim that they are dedicated to the destruction of the Catholic Church and the spread of communism. On the other hand, in Imperialist Russia, they were believed to be behind the spread of republicanism, Napoleonism, Anglophilia, atheism, Catholicism… Basically, anything they hated. (Ironically, Catholics can't become Masons at all due to their own rules; they're _very _exclusive.) Author Dan Brown played with this idea in his novel _The Lost Symbol, _where the group played a role._

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Westminster, England, February 23rd, 1559.

In a court of law, a very unhappy-looking young woman was kneeling before a judge, guarded by two bailiffs.

"Thus, by the power invested in me," said the judge, "you are hereby sentenced to…"

"Objection!" shouted a voice.

"Eh," said the judge. "Who?"

Then the doors to the courtroom were literally _kicked _open. The two bailiffs turned around as the prisoner screamed and covered her head.

A man in courier's clothing walked in, followed by two in far less fancy attire. Despite this, the one dressed as the courier had clearly been the one who had knocked the door down.

"Bailiffs!" shouted the judge. "Apprehend them! They're clearly out their minds!"

"I beg to differ, Claudius, I never felt better…" said the courier.

As the two bailiffs rushed at him with their spears, his two companions stood in front of them, and then each punched one of them in the face. They both dropped their weapons and fell over, clutching the spot where they were hit.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded the judge, as the courier walked up to his bench. "What…"

"…gives me the right?" asked the courier. "See for yourself."

He tossed a scroll onto the bench.

"What's this…" asked Claudius, as he unrolled it.

Then his confident look quickly faded as he read it.

"A royal decree signed by her majesty the Queen, Magistrate," he replied, "issuing a pardon to this prisoner and all others currently under sentence of execution by your order."

"Uh…" said Claudius, nervously.

He looked at the man, and saw the odd mark on his cheek clearly.

"There's also this…" said the Shadowchaser.

He tossed another scroll to him. The Magistrate's hand trembled as he opened this one. It had the Queen's signature on it too… But this decree applied to _him…_

"A lot of mistakes were made during her father's reign," continued the Shadowchaser, "and _you _were a _big _one. It will take some time to correct them all…"

His voice sank to a whisper.

"…but we have the time. A Magistrate with the belief that the only good Shadow is a dead one who has the authority to see that done was an important priority…"

Claudius made a nervous chuckle, tugged his collar, and then stepped down from the bench.

"You, uh…" he said. "You wouldn't strike a defenseless old man, would you, Sir Lane?"

Lane only reply was a cold look.

Then Magistrate made a snarl that didn't seem human at all. He reached under his judicial robe, and pulled a _very _large sword from it. Exactly _how, _it was hard to tell. Then he didn't look human in the least – the spell concealing his true appearance was gone, and his coal black skin covered with scales and bulbous nose was now obvious to the three Shadowchasers and the prisoner.

She screamed again, but she wasn't the only one this time – almost _everyone _in the room did… All but Lane and his two partners. As Claudius tried to strike, a blade appeared in _his _hand to block it.

"You don't seem so defenseless _now, _your honor…" grunted Lane. "I have to say, I'm surprised, I didn't think you were anything more than a very… ugly… human…"

The skulk made two more violent swings, but Lane blocked them both, and _then _he got over the initial shock, making an offensive swing of his own. Claudius took one step backwards, pausing for a second… One second too much. Another swing by Lane shattered Claudius' sword, knocked him into the bench, and knocked the powdered wig off his head.

The skulk growled as Lane and the other two walked up to him.

"You simpletons have no idea what's happening…" he muttered. "I'm nothing… It's all bigger than me… Bigger than you… Bigger than the entire legacy of the Tudors!"

Lane lifted him by the collar and shook him hard.

"Tell it to the _real _judge…" he said.

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_The Bavarian Illuminati was a short-lived society formed in 1776 in Bavaria – naturally – that was devoted to free thought and the ideals of the Enlightenment. It had about two-thousand members at its peak, but disbanded when Bavaria outlawed such groups. Still, some people suspect that they're still around, and that they're planning world domination. Dan Brown (again) uses them as a hook in his novel _Angels and Demons._ (Of course, maybe they already succeeded in taking over the world a long time ago. After all, free thought and Enlightenment, their original goals, are _very _popular ideas in the western world these days…)_

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March 3rd, 1693. A cave fifty miles north of Beijing.

One PM, local time.

A humanoid wearing a very stylish, lime-green kimono of the type worn by men with gold trim and wooden sandals paced back and forth. Bones were littered over the floor of the cave.

Calling him human would have clearly been wrong. His head resembled a bird of prey with white feathers streaked with black, and both his hands and feet were taloned.

Loud cries like those of monstrous birds of prey echoed through the air outside as he glanced at the fortified door leading in.

"With due respect, your highness," said a voice (not Chinese, but a strange language that was similar), "this is becoming more risky by the hour. Eventually someone is going to notice."

He turned to see a similar creature wearing leather armor of the type used by foot-soldiers in the Imperial Army.

"Calm yourself…" he said. "They might, but by the time everyone between here and Raging Mountain territory knows of it, that won't matter. We just have to…"

"Prince San!" shouted a sentry at the door.

"Who?" asked the leader.

"Humans…" said the sentry. "Uh… Only two…"

"_Two?" _shouted the tengu. "My father would have to be the biggest fool in the world to let _two _humans this far into…"

Then he was cut off as something shook the whole cave. Then it happened again, and the barrier started to crack. Then a third time, and it cracked and splintered even more. The fourth time, it wouldn't hold. It gave way, under the huge, glowing, green fist that had been ramming it.

It was indeed two humans… One of which knew powerful sorcery. As the first vanished, he and his two retainers saw them clearly, a man in plate armor and a younger man in a red kimono, but one that seemed designed with ease of movement in mind.

"To me, my warriors!" shouted the prince, as he lifted his hand.

The bones lifted off the ground with a pale, eerie light, and then fitted themselves together into skeletons… Not human skeletons, skeletons that clearly once belonged to bird-like creatures like him. The undead soldiers rushed the two humans, while the two retainers drew long blades.

"Allow me…" said the sorcerer to the armored man.

He quickly spoke a hasty incantation, and the undead creatures were propelled backwards under a spiraling cone of rainbow-colored light, breaking into pieces on the back wall of the cave. Then the sentry swung at the warrior, only to be disarmed with one swing.

He backed up, and the other one hesitated. The warrior made a beckoning gesture. They decided against it, and lifted their arms.

The warrior turned towards Prince Sen.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" asked the Yokai noble. "You wouldn't dare…"

"I would," replied the Shadowchaser, as he grabbed the tengu by the throat, hard, forcing him to his knees.

He looked the young prince in the eye.

"I never liked you people in the best of times, your highness," he said, putting an intentional sarcastic tone into the title, "but I figured that one redeeming quality you had was loyalty to your own Clan…"

He sadly looked at the broken skeletons.

"Seems you don't even have that… "I know exactly who you are, San, you're a liar and a murderer, and I don't bother with honorifics with that sort of person."

He slowly relaxed his grip, and the prince gasped for air.

"You filthy peasant…" he said, chuckling nervously. "We're in the middle of Howling Gale territory… How do you intend to leave with me as a prisoner? Magic or not, you won't get two miles. My parents will have you both drawn and quartered!"

The Shadowchaser looked him in the eye. Then the other one turned towards the door. Then he shoved him to the floor.

"What's _your _opinion on that, your excellence?" he asked.

They all turned towards the entrance. Someone else walked in.

It was a woman dressed in a feminine version of San's kimono, but far fancier. If not for the talons and clearly bird-like features, she might have been considered very beautiful.

"Mother…" gasped San.

The Bride of the Howling Gale sadly shook her head.

"How do you think we even got here?" asked the sorcerer.

"WHY?" gasped San. "You allied yourself with them? You _hate _humans!"

"I hate the House of the Creeping Night even more," she said, sadly. "When these two told me you were allied with them, I wanted so much to believe they were liars…

"But when I demanded proof, they showed me things more horrible than I've ever imagined… I tried to tell them you were being brainwashed or blackmailed, but they were even able to disprove that…"

Tears formed in her eyes.

"Mother…" he said.

"Don't tell me, please…" she said. "If I don't know why, maybe I can keep telling myself you were _somehow _coerced…"

She turned to the two Shadowchasers.

"Take him…" she said. "No-one will oppose you until you leave Howling Gale territory."

"Understood," said the armored man.

He and his partner bowed, but she looked away.

"One final word of advice, your excellence," said the sorcerer. "In three hours, the Lord and Bride of the Creeping Night will complete their ritual, but it will fail because San isn't here. Given the time and resources they invested in it, they'll likely be furious. When night falls, I would expect to see a horde of them with an intent to attack anything that moves."

"Then we will fight back," she replied, not turning around, "so you two had best be gone by sundown, lest you be caught in the middle."

They simply nodded, and then pulled San to his feet, giving the disgraced prince a shove as they left. His mother sobbed softly.

It had been a choice between helping them and fighting him herself when the ritual was finished… And she knew that taking the second choice would have been _far _worse than this…

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_The Knights Templar were a group of skilled, pious, and occasionally highly educated elite fighters, cavalry, and bankers founded during the Crusades. By all accounts, there was nothing about them (well, most of them) that really suggested anything sinister; maybe they were just a bunch of guys with bad publicity that they didn't deserve. (They did have some involvement with the war where the vampires were wiped out, but then, many knightly orders did.) The fact that they ceased to exist practically overnight leads a lot of people to think that they're still around, and up to no good. You can find them in __The Da Vinci Code__ (a novel written by – guess who? – Dan Brown), __Foucault's Pendulum__ (a novel by Umberto Eco, who unlike Brown, doesn't even try to have it make sense), and the video game __Assassin's Creed._

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May 1st, 1945. Berlin.

In a bunker that had been hastily constructed from a wine cellar in what had once been a restaurant, five German soldiers and one officer – the insignia on his dirty and soiled uniform indicating the rank of Colonel – were standing watching the barricaded door.

The officer seemed calm, but his five men, much less so. Their expressions combined anger and fear.

Then the room shook to the sound of a large explosion, seemingly only a block away.

"That one was even closer!" shouted one of the soldiers.

"Stay strong, men!" shouted the officer. "They'll be here in an hour!"

"You said that two hours ago!" shouted another solider.

Then another shell hit, and the room shook harder.

"Ugh…" said the officer. Then he froze. "Wait…"

He turned towards the door with a weird look in his eye. He cursed in German…

It came suddenly. The door broke open, and _ten _soldiers wearing the uniforms of the Red Army rushed through. They didn't say anything before opening fire. The five German troops tried to return fire, but were quickly cut down.

"_Enough…" _said the officer, in a very inhuman voice.

He simply lifted his hand, and the Russian soldiers screamed, dropping their rifles. The officer's human face vanished, a horrible, cold tentacled face replacing it.

As the enemy soldiers fell, the vile illithid in a Nazi uniform glared at them.

"_You humans are so stupid…" _it said.

"That is one of the biggest cases of the pot calling the kettle black I've ever heard," said a voice.

The voice wasn't in Russian _or _German, but English this time. The monster turned to the door…

The man who had spoken was fifty years old or so, with salt-and-pepper grey hair. He wore a uniform that was the same style as the type worn by American soldiers, but with nothing to indicate rank, position, or even actual allegiance.

Still, he had a weapon. An _automatic_ rifle.

"Raise 'em, Qath," he said, pointing the weapon. Then he pointed to a small device that was clipped to his ear.

"Your mind blasts won't work on us while we have these, and without them you're about as dangerous as a snail out of its shell. Now raise 'em."

"You can kill me if you want," said the illithid, "but our Führer will…"

"You haven't heard?" asked one of the other Shadowchasers. "Your Führer is dead. The coward put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger."

"Of course, given what the Red Army would have done to him, I can't blame him," added the third.

The leader pointed the gun at him again.

"I'm not warning you again," he threatened. "As of this moment, I'm no more impressed by the title of 'Fuhrer' than I am of the powerless weakling an illithid is when it can't use its psychic powers. Now put your slimy hands or I swear I'll send you to Hell to meet him."

The illithid looked at him and hissed.

"I don't care…" he spat out. "No matter how many of us you pigs kill…"

He pulled a knife from his belt.

"…you can't kill an idea!"

Then he lunged at the leader…

He never got past the second step. Three shots from the rifle proved it hadn't been a bluff.

The veteran Shadowchaser Anderson Steading looked at the body of the infamous illithid inquisitor, someone he had been searching for almost since the war had started.

"Maybe…" he said. "But an idea can kill _you…"_

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_The New World Order is a term that was first mentioned by the John Birch Society in the 1970's, but no-one took it seriously until President George H.W. Bush used the term in his poorly-timed speech in 1991 (one of many reasons he didn't win reelection) and since then, the term has become synonymous with evil organizations. Supposedly, the New World Order is some shadowy group of businessmen, politicians, and other elites who are plotting world domination for selfish goals. One popular theory associated with them is the NAU Theory, which states that that they plan to somehow form the "North American Union", which will cause America, Canada, and Mexico to abolish their currencies and unite under one currency called the "Amero". How will that help them conquer the world? Well… Truthfully, that's something no two people making the claim can agree on. _

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July 14th, 1986. Fifteen miles west of Phoenix, Arizona.

In the middle of the desert, a large warehouse stood, surrounded by barbed wire fences, posted by "Keep Out" and "Beware of the Dog" signs.

Of course, there was no dog, and after a pair of wire cutters clipped through a wire cutting the power to the _real _security system, a very muscular man and a young woman, both dressed in khaki clothing, cautiously walked up to the door. Thick chains held it shut.

"Chains are a nice touch…" said the woman.

"Sure are..." said the man.

He grabbed hold of the lock, and gave it a yank with his bare hands, ripping it open.

"Obviously meant to keep some poor coyote from wandering in…"

They slowly opened the door.

"…and dying from the biggest cocaine overdose in the history of this country…"

He hit a light switch, and they looked at it all… Literally _thousands _of packages of raw Colombian cocaine, stacked on shelves reaching to the ceiling.

"Dear God…" said the woman. "How much is here, Val?"

"Enough to feed a moderately-sized _country _of addicts," he replied. "Looks like we found out why the dealers on the east coast had gone dry… Sykes was getting hold of it and storing it here…"

"You called?" said a voice.

They turned around, and he was there. The well-known dark fey crime boss Wilhelm Sykes. He was a diabolic-looking creature, with goat-like legs, and _very _long, pointed ears, along with dark eyebrows. Still, his clothing was elegant, if old fashioned.

Behind him were two hulking, bald, ugly creatures with tusks, holding shotguns.

"I have to commend you two for finding this place," he chuckled. "Still, it was kind of stupid of you two to think I didn't see you coming. It's not like a stash this big had so lax security that two people could just sneak up to it.

"That's the difference between people like me and people like you. You just charge into the situation like some dumb Leeroy Jenkins, while I can plan ahead, think in advance, and…"

Then he stopped as he heard some very distinctive clicks behind him.

He and his two henchmen slowly turned around. Ten Deputies of the Maricopa Sheriff's Department were aiming rifles at them.

Sykes' two henchmen dropped their weapons, and the three of them lifted their hands as they turned back towards the two Shadowchasers.

"You know…" grumbled Sykes, "you two could have said they were there before I went and made an ass of myself…"

"Where's the fun in that?" asked Val. "Always fun seeing you make an ass of yourself Sykes…"

Then he grabbed the mobster by the collar.

"Look, Sykes, I just _gotta_ ask…" he said, "I'm sure the prosecutor can charge you with possession with intent to sell, but… For some reason, you weren't selling this stuff! You've just been hording the biggest stash of cocaine in history for months! Why the hell would you just _sit _on a stash with a street value of over a billion? Don't tell me you were trying to raise the price by increasing demand for it?"

"Hey, maybe I was!" replied Sykes.

Val groaned. Then he and his partner turned to the officers.

"Tell the Sheriff that Stormbringer owes him one," he said. "Move it, you mooks…"

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_Conspiracy theories are many and varied. People are suspicious by nature, and untrusting. Some say that mortals don't have free will… Nonsense. They do, and this is the downside of it. _

_It's amazing what some people will believe…_

_There's a principle called Occam's razor that states, quite simply, that when you have competing hypothesis, the one with the fewest options is better. In other words, the solution that requires fewer variables to believe is usually the best one. A conspiracy theorist usually thinks the opposite. _

_But… _

_In a world where Shadowkind live in the darkness, out of sight from most people… Maybe this isn't so surprising._

_"Ignorance is not bliss but knowledge is not power." So it says on the back of the card that Jalal gave me during the time I posed as a Shadowchaser, a card I have kept, I believe. This saying has been challenged many times. In some cases, it is inaccurate._

_Willful ignorance may not be blissful at all. It may actually cause suffering. And false knowledge may be incredibly powerful, but only if you're the one spreading it… Lucifer is called the King of Lies by some, but dishonesty is not limited to the Overlord of Hell and his minions. An old proverb among my peers states, "Angels cannot lie… But their words don't always reveal the whole truth."_

_I ask that you read my words with an open mind, but to temper them with common sense. Doubt if you want, but don't doubt so much that you become willing to believe what you __should __doubt. _

_In my quest to maintain the Balance between Good and Evil, Law and Chaos on your world, and in all of Creation in general, I have studied conspiracy theories in great detail. I have even helped to spread a few (which ones, I will not say). I have been known by many names in this quest… Colcook, Duke Rohan the Wise, Setag the Dark Shade, Falagar, and dozens of other names. I sign this work with my true name this time, because I feel I require the trust of whoever reads it._

_For now, to preserve the Balance, honesty must be a factor, and a tale must finally be told. My goal in writing this work is not an attempt to support the Shadowchasers now, nor anyone they ally themselves with or oppose, but only to add some insight in an endeavor that, in retrospect, gnaws at my soul. Whatever happened in past events, I claim absolute neutrality now…_

_After all, I am rilmani…_

_I am Jemorille the Exile._

The first official chapter of "Shadowchasers: Conspiracy" is coming soon.


	2. Walking in Memphis

_**It's always best to begin at the beginning, as some say. It's hard to say where it began…**_

_**How many mortals are involved? The answer is both simple and complicated at the same time: as many as there are stars in the sky. All mortals are involved.**_

_**That's not to say all mortals are unwitting pawns, but potentially, all are fuel for the motivation behind the powerful dark force which could hide in the most innocent of things.**_

_**How innocent? Well, I mentioned the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which was a serious matter, but many of these conspiracy theories, as they are called, are not**_** nearly**_** as serious. Some are lighthearted and fanciful things that are the subject of whimsical comedy.**_

_**The ones about famous people are rather common examples of this, especially ones that involve their deaths. Often when a popular celebrity dies, people are unwilling to let go, and they claim he isn't dead, or at least that he didn't die the way people claim.**_

_**The classic example of this is probably American singer and media personality Elvis Presley. The man was a legend in his time and a groundbreaking artist. His tragic death at a relatively young age caused the whole country to mourn, and some refused to believe it, claiming he had faked his death because he wanted to retire.**_

_**As the years passed, some people thought up some rather weird explanations to this. I don't mean **__**unusual, **__**I mean **__**weird. **__**Like that he had been abducted by aliens, or even that he **__**was **__**an alien, or some sort of Shadowkind who could shapeshift. **_

_**Now, seeing as Elvis was born in 1935, he'd likely have died of old age long before the tall tales stopped, even if he **__**had **__**fooled everyone. (Unless he **__**was **__**a Shadowkind with a longer lifespan than humans, but that's really pushing it.) Still, no-one really takes this one seriously anymore. It sort of exists as a parody of conspiracy theories now. **_

_**So how could a rumor that causes folks to laugh now hide a sinister motive? It doesn't now… But that doesn't mean it **__**never **__**did…**_

**0-0-0-0-0**

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**CHAPTER ONE**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Walking in Memphis**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

Our story begins about five years after the defeat of the Doomdreamers and the destruction of the Temple of All-Consumption. It was early October, a Sunday, at around one in the afternoon.

About a mile outside of Memphis, five or so miles north of the Mississippi border, a rider on a D-Wheel dressed in jeans, a leather jacket, a green tube top underneath, leather boots, and black gloves, drove down the public highway as fast as she was able.

One might say she was rather anxious to reach her destination.

Her name was Sofia Witt, a woman who usually counted herself a member of the organization known to Shadowkind and some humans as Shadowchasers…

But not now. She didn't need or want to be a Shadowchaser today. She had something else in mind.

She was driving slightly above the speed limit, had run about three yellow lights so far, and likely had committed a few other traffic violations, but the risk of getting a ticket would be worth it.

She pulled to a stop. Her goal was in front of her. Graceland. The place where Elvis Presley called home.

When Elvis actually lived here, the views of this large mansion were mixed. Many critics thought the décor was loud and tacky, and that most of Elvis' modifications had been done to flaunt his wealth to the public. One unflattering description compared the place to a brothel, saying that "nothing in the house is worth a dime", and that the "gaudy," "garish," and "phony" renovations were "of an intensity that makes you gag".

Still, ever since the King's death, the further renovated museum was sort of a shrine, being one of the biggest tourist destinations in the music business, and still getting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Visits to the place often took on a quasi-religious tone.

But the reason she had for being here was different… As big a fan of Elvis as she was, she was more concerned right now of another fan who had taken her here so many times…

She took off her helmet, her long, flowing blonde locks falling free as she shook her head. Then she nervously took a photograph that she had been keeping tucked in the left pocket of her jacket and looked at it.

It was a picture of her wearing a rather revealing swimsuit, with a handsome young man, with pointed ears, fair skin, flaxen hair almost as long as hers, and hazel eyes. They were at a beach, both of the smiling broadly.

She couldn't help but chuckle a little now… What had ever possessed her to let him convince her to wear that in public?

This was the last photo anyone had taken of him before he just… Disappeared, about five years ago… Vanished without a trace. There had been no evidence of foul play, but no note or message from him as to where he went. His co-workers, sisters, and even his parents were all clueless… Until this morning.

That's when he finally called, and told her to meet him here, at the place where the King of Rock and Roll had once called home. A place where the two of them used to come all the time.

She slowly pushed her cowboy hat held onto her back by a cord into place to replace the helmet. Looking around, she dismounted, then strode up to the front gates. She walked past the brick walls covered with graffiti art, into the yard in front of Graceland proper…

And then she realized something.

_It's quiet… _she thought.

Seriously, that was bizarre. Usually, this place would have _dozens _of tourists around. Graceland _never _had a slow day. Its events tended to draw capacity crowds even in pouring rain.

Then she heard an ominous clicking noise behind her.

"Turn around…" said a voice. "Slowly…"

She froze. That voice.

"Sofia?" it said.

She turned around. It was him. He was still wearing the same old-fashioned elven jerkin that he usually wore, and it stood out in stark contrast to the _very _modern Glock revolver he was pointing at her.

"Philip, I…" she said.

She froze as he lifted the weapon, aiming it at the spot between her eyes.

"Did you tell anyone you came here?" he asked, sternly.

Sofia was speechless for a minute. She had no idea why Philip was threatening her. Still… she _did _know enough to _always _answer "yes" to that question; she had seen enough movies to know that answering in the negative would usually get you killed.

She swallowed hard.

"Uh, yeah," she said, "I mentioned it to a few people…"

"Did you tell Franklin?" he asked.

"Uh…" she said. Then she looked at him funny.

"Who the hell is Franklin?" she asked. "Philip, what is going on? Why did you ask to meet me at Graceland?"

"You don't remember?" asked Philip. "We met here on spring break."

"We did not, we met at your parents' Independence Day barbecue!" she said, now with an annoyed tone. "Your cousin introduced us!"

He looked at her for a few seconds.

"Actually, my brother did…" he said.

"You don't _have _a brother!" she replied, the annoyed tone turning to an _angry _one. "You only have two sisters, Philip, what…"

He sighed. Then he un-cocked the hammer and put the gun in a holster in his jerkin.

"You… You were testing me…" she said. "What? Did you think I was someone else?"

Philip didn't answer. He bent over to a duffle bag at his feet and unzipped it. Sofia watched as he pulled out a familiar object.

"Wha… A Duel Disk?" she asked. "Why…"

"Why?" he asked. He fastened the device on his left arm. "I thought you liked this. You never needed a reason before."

"Well, yeah," she replied, "that was before you were acting like something out of _The Twilight Zone… _Philip…"

"I'll tell you later, So-So," he said. "Duel me now…"

She stopped. The nickname… She had almost forgotten about that.

She looked at him square in the face.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

At that moment, it was half past six in Great Britain. At Shadowchaser Headquarters, the second shift for most every job had gone home…

The one in charge had forgone his lunch break earlier in order to take an extra-long one now. He had something important to do.

In his manor house on the grounds, the founder of the organization sat at another contrast between old-fashioned and modern: an old French bureau Mazarin, with a laptop computer mounted atop it.

Jalal Stormbringer sat at the old desk in the proper way (which was in a sideways position, with one knee below the work surface, as it was designed for military officers who wore a sword by their sides) and lifted the screen. He paused and did nothing for a minute or two.

Sighing, he leaned back in the chair and rubbed his eyes. As surprised as many people might have been to realize, he was as just as likely as anyone was, if not more so, to get writer's block. How many languages had he mastered, how many philosophers, poets and muses had he read the works of?

Picking up a paperback off the floor (one of a number of small but growing piles he had begun to construct as a more constructive means to pass the time between meetings and various tasks than alcohol) he thumbed through to his spot, marked by a Duel Monsters card.

Removing it, he flicked it over with his thumb and pointer finger, finding it to be, of all things, a humble Skull Servant. Looking at it with furrowed brows for a moment, he suddenly smiled and replaced it gently back into the book, a memory surfacing that seemed to re-inspire him.

Soon the air was filled with the clatter of keys once more.

"_A wise man once said, well, perhaps more eccentric then wise, that it is not so much Death itself we fear, as the uncertainty of what comes after. While hardly the only thing he had to say (in fact I believe his biggest problem was he was seemingly incapable of _ceasing_ to make such musings aloud) this one still rings quite close to the truth. Namely the reason why, despite all the warnings and gruesome examples of those who have tried and failed before in its pursuit, people still find the romance of eternal life appealing._

"_Self-preservation. It's perhaps one of the strongest aspects of sentient beings, the need to persevere, and to survive at all costs. In contrast, the lack of information of what goes on after the body has ceased to function presents the ultimate unknown, and the clash of these two concepts is perhaps one of the deepest fears among all life. The idea of all that we are, all that we have come to be and may yet become simply... ending._

"_Now, by this logic one would think that of those who still seek to attain it, the majority would be either Mundane or recently turned Awares who have yet to gain any insight into the fact that a complex and incredibly intricate network of so called 'afterlives' do in fact exist._

"_But then, unless they had prior knowledge of precisely which of these fates awaited them in death and saw them as undesired, shouldn't those who are knowledgeable take enough comfort in knowing life does not in fact, end with the final beat of one's heart to not seek to prolong it by unnatural means?_

"_Yes and no. After all, not everyone has pursued it for the same reasons…_

Here he paused briefly, as if unsure whether to continue, before he sighed heavily and continued typing.

"_An example of an entirely different motivation would be my own father, Jamor Stormbringer…_

"_I've waited to put this to paper for a long time, and if my wishes were obeyed, it is being published posthumously, by someone who I trust. I don't claim this to be a defense of my family's nor anyone else's actions, but an explanation. _

"_And hopefully a way to understand why anyone would spend years of hard work and a practical fortune doing what they'd eventually gladly spend tenfold as much to rid themselves of."_

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Sofia stood in front of Philip, holding her Duel Disk in front of her chest.

Both of them were wearing a device over the left eye, a green lens framed win silvery metal. Sofa tapped the side, and binary symbols surrounded them, accompanied by a computerized voice.

"_**Duel interface set, augmented reality vision link established."**_

"So you've decided to face me…" he said.

"Only because I want to find out what's going on," she said.

**(Sofia: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Philip: 8,000)**

"And once this is over, we can discuss the thousand or so other things I want answered…

"GAME ON!"

She spread her five cards out.

_Seems okay… _she thought.

"By all means…" she said, looking up.

Philip drew his first card.

"I'll bring Toy Soldier out first," he said.

There was an upward draft of light, and a small, wooden, painted soldier in a uniform typical of Victorian-era France stepped in front of him, aiming a musket at Sofia. She looked at it in surprise. (800 ATK)

_Okay… _she thought. _That's a… card you don't see all too often…_

"I'll set one card, then play my Shard of Greed Spell Card," continued Philip.

A facedown card appeared behind the Soldier, then a Spell Card with an odd picture on it of what looked like a fragment of the broken Pot of Greed.

"And it's your turn…" he said.

"Mmm…" said Sofia, looking at the Soldier as she drew.

_If he manages to keep that guy around until his next turn, he'll have three of them, _she thought. _That might be trouble… And he didn't do anything like this last time…_

_A lot can change a man in five years, but still… _

"I activate Extra Gate," she said.

"Eh…" he said.

A Quickplay Spell formed as she played it, and a steel door with a green electric sign rose behind her.

"I have a few new tricks too, Philip," she said. "When I play this, I name a number, and then I look at what you have in your Extra Deck. If there's a monster there with a Level that matches that number, I get to banish it."

She gave a sly smirk as he looked at her. Then she held up her index finger.

"I name… one…"

He gave a look of surprise, then there were several flashes in front of him as images of the cards in his Extra Deck were displayed. There weren't any Level 1's, however, and then the sign above the door buzzed as an X appeared on it.

_The only Level 1 monster that could conceivably go in the Extra Deck would be Thousand Eyes Restrict, and it's not even legal, _he thought. _What is she up to?_

"Well, seems you don't have one…" she said.

She shook her head as the card images disappeared.

"That means I have to discard one of my cards…"

She took an odd-looking Winged Beast from her hand, and chucked it into her Graveyard Zone.

"That card…" said Philip.

"Yup, Mist Valley Baby Roc," she replied, "and it may be in the Graveyard, but because I discarded it, it won't stay there long..."

There was a small shriek, and a small, hawk-like bird with a head like a bird's skull hovered over the air in front of Sonja, flapping its wings. (400 ATK)

"Next, I'll use the Field Spell, Divine Wind of Mist Valley."

She fed the card into her Field Zone, and an eerie, foggy mist blew over the yard, covering it with a fine mist. A soft wind blew as sparkling, colored motes glittered in the mist.

She held up another Monster Card, another Winged Beast.

"Mist Condor?" asked Philip.

"You got it," she replied. "I can Special Summon this by returning a Mist Valley monster to my hand."

The Baby Roc let out another cry, then spread its wings, flew upward, and then turned to mist itself, then its card flew back to Sofia. As she caught it, a new bird flew forward to take its place, an ugly buzzard with blue feathers and an amulet shaped like a skull. (1,400 ATK)

"First of all, because I summoned it that way, it gains a small boost…"

(1,700 ATK)

"Plus, with my Field Spell, returning a Wind Monster to my hand lets me summon another one from my deck… I'll summon Mist Valley Shaman!"

The wind started to blow slightly more, and a whirlwind formed from it. A woman in a low-cut, black leotard and black hip-boots with a cowl that has an eye on the forehead formed out of the mist. She had elf-ears and long strands of blonde hair down her back. (1,200 ATK)

Philip looked at the two monsters closely as they looked back at him.

"Get that Toy Soldier!" shouted Sofia. "Buzzard bait!"

The condor flew higher, and dive-bombed the wooden Warrior, crushing it in its talons and reducing it to small, broken pieces.

"Eh…" said Philip.

**(S: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 7,100)**

"Your turn!" said Sofia to the Shaman. "Direct attack!"

The Shaman spread her arms, and hawk-like wings formed on them. She leapt, propelled by the wings, and aimed a kick at Philip…

"I use Pinpoint Guard!" he exclaimed, as his set card lifted up, revealing a Trap. "Since you attacked, I can summon my Toy Soldier back from the Graveyard in Defense Mode, _and _make it invulnerable for the rest of this turn."

The Soldier appeared again, kneeling and holding its musket on its lap. (300 DEF) Sofia sighed as Shaman backed down.

_I should have guessed it wouldn't be so easy, _she thought. _However…_

"I sacrifice my Condor and my Shaman…"

The two Winged Beasts turned to vapor, and the Divine Wind started to blow in earnest, turning into a bona fide storm. There was a _much _louder shriek, and a bird over twice as big as even _Sofia _was alighted on the field, casting a shadow over Philip.

Simorgh, Bird of Divinity looked at him with its large, piercing eyes. (2,700 ATK)

"Same old Sofia…" he said. "Always trying to make an impression…"

"Maybe I haven't changed much…" she said.

A set card fit into her Disk, and appeared behind Simorgh.

"You, on the other hand? I have _no _idea what your story is… I'm ending my turn… Divine Gale!"

The huge Winged Beast lifted its wings, and a furious storm tore over the field. Philip grunted as the winds buffeted him.

**(S: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 6,600)**

"At least I had _one _Spell Card to protect me from that…" he muttered.

"But you need at least _two _to shield yourself from all of it," replied Sofia, "in case you forgot…"

"Oh, I haven't…" replied Philip.

He drew, and Toy Solder stood up, producing a bugle. It blew a rallying tune from it, and some marching music started.

"I use Toy Soldier's effect to summon a couple of his friends," he said.

He slapped two duplicate cards on his Disk, and two identical monsters appeared. (800 ATK x2)

"Okay, I only need to set _one _card to be safe from him, but…"

He played three cards, and they appeared in his Spell Zone, one behind each Soldier.

"Better safe than sorry, huh? Your move…"

Simorgh looked at the set cards, then shook its head. Sofia drew. Then she noticed Philip. He had made a sideways glance at his watch for some reason.

_What? _she thought.

Her hand now consisted of only Mist Valley Baby Roc and After the Storm.

_Still… _she thought.

"Uh, So-So?" said Philip.

Sofia looked up, and as she did so, one of his cards lifted up.

"Toy Cannon?" she said. "That…"

A French Revolution-era cannon appeared in front of the three Soldiers as their muskets vanished. A ramming pole appeared in the left hand of the one on the right side as the one on the left hefted a cannonball, and then loaded it into the muzzle…

Sofia realized what was happening, but it was too late. The one with the pole rammed the projectile in, then dropped it and stood aside, and the one behind it lit a fuse…

All three of them covered their ears as it fired, and the cannonball hit Simorgh as the great bird let out a cry of shock, stumbling over on its knees and knocking Sofia over on the way. (1,000 DEF)

"Ow…" she groaned. "Pretty nasty toy…"

**(S: 7,600) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 6,600)**

"Not recommended for children under eight, batteries not included," said Philip. "But anyway…"

Another Trap lifted up.

"I use Gulliver Chain!"

As he said that, long lengths of chain sprouted from the card, and Simorgh screamed again…

"HEY!" shouted Sofia.

She got up as the chains looped around the Bird of Divinity, tying it down. It tried to struggle, but they only tightened.

"I wouldn't try switching it back to Attack Mode," said Philip, with a stern tone. "It will kill itself in the process if it tries."

_"You, know, Philip," growled Sofia, "the Lilliputians used ropes,__ not__ chains!"_

_"Apparently, no-one at I2 read that book," said Philip, with a shrug. _"But I have another card to use…"

A weird Trap lifted up, one depicting an odd-looking elven magician chanting and dancing.

"It's called Wonderworker," he explained. "Because you have a Field Spell, I can banish one from _my _deck… Then _your _Field Spell changes to the effect of the one I've banished."

"Wait a…" said Sofia.

"Thus…" said Philip.

He tapped his deck, and a card snapped out.

"…I banish City of Eternity!"

He threw the card skyward, and lightning flashed… The mist blew away…

Then, Graceland itself seemed to crumble into burning wreckage, followed by the rest of Memphis, only to be replaced by a larger, darker… more _terrible _city. They were on the main street of a metropolis that was in ruins, burning skyscrapers under a blood-red sky.

Behind Philip was a ruined bridge spanning a bay which she couldn't look down into, but it led to a large, dark fortress in the distance, an ominous tower that seemed out of place.

"Uh… You know…" she said.

Then she let out a small scream as an out of control traffic helicopter plummeted from the sky, crashing into the bay behind Philip.

"Uh… City of Eternity? For a place with a name like that… I don't think it has much chance of lasting very long…"

"The word 'eternity' can have several meanings, Sofia," he said, sadly.

_So, this is all perfectly normal to him? _she thought.

She looked at her two cards, and then at the side of her Disk that held the Graveyard.

_I have Baby Roc here, and it's a Tuner… _she thought, _and I have Call of the Haunted set… But… Damn, with Condor the only non-Tuner I have access to, I don't have all too many options…_

She placed the Roc's card on her Monster Zone, and it appeared flat on the field in front of her.

"I'll end my turn then…" she said, cautiously.

Philip silently made a draw. He looked at it closely.

"It's been two turns since I used Shard of Greed," he said.

The Continuous Spell shattered to pieces, then the pieces stuck together, fitting into a Pot of Greed. It let out a low chuckle.

"I'll get rid of it to draw twice…"

_Okay, this is where he pulls out some big, nasty, scary thing… _she thought, as she watched him make the draws.

Then he looked at Sofia for a minute before playing the card.

_God, I didn't want to be THAT right! _she thought.

The Spell Card he played was one of notorious reputation… As it appeared, the three Toy Soldiers turned into pulsating white orbs, and flew skywards, spiraling around each other…

Lighting flashed twice, as a flurry of metallic squares flew into the sky and assembled together, forming a giant aircraft, roughly pyramidal in shape. Turrets and cannons sprouted from the terrible Machine in all directions, a hum of motors filling the air.

The eyes – yes, eyes – on the center of a robotic face on the thing opened, casting an ominous light on the dark street. The huge beast grumbled, and the city shook… (2,500 ATK)

"Air Fortress Ziggurat?" screamed Sofia.

"Is that a problem?" asked Philip.

"Philip, where the sam-hill did you get this card?" she asked. "That's not something you can just walk into the Dragon's Den Toy and Hobby Shop and buy, you know?"

"Let's just say it's a long story," he replied. "And I'm not done yet. I use that Equip Spell, Break Draw."

_Crud… _thought Sofia. _With a Machine armed with that, he'll be able draw once every time it battles a monster and wins… Which in Ziggurat's case, means almost all the time…_

Indeed, the huge mecha was already extending its frontal cannons… Then the streets shook again as burning, fiery stuck the set card in front of her, atomizing the Winged Beast and leaving a small crater.

Philip drew once, and then paused for a minute.

"Okay, this should do it…" he said.

"Do what?" she asked.

"I'll tell you later," he said. "But I'll let you in on the effect of City of Eternity now… Strictly speaking, it doesn't force you to attack, but not doing so has consequences. If you don't do so in any given round, then the strongest monster you have gets a Blighted Counter…"

"Wait a minute…" said Sofia.

She looked at Simorgh.

"…and each Blighted Counter deals 800 points of damage during your Standby Phase. My turn is done now…"

The eyes of the huge thing glowed again, and a hatch opened at the bottom. A robot that looked like a man-sized action figure leapt onto the city street below, then knelt, defending. (0 DEF)

"…which means I get this Toy Robot Token."

"And the Tokens protect the big guy from attacks…" sighed Sofia. "Swell…"

She made a draw, and then grunted as a horrid, burning feeling struck her in the chest.

**(S: 6,800) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 6,600)**

_Okay, let's retrace my steps here… _she thought. _Got up, showered, had breakfast, got a call from Philip saying to meet at Graceland, came here, found Philip with a gun, dueled him, found him with cards that would be hard for a Rare Hunter to find…_

_Yeah, it's something all right… _

"I banish my Mist Condor to Special Summon Silpheed in Defense Mode," she said.

There was a cold, chilling wind, and a gaunt man in a white suit with stringy, white hair, holding a long wand, appeared from the mist, kneeling down. (700 DEF)

_That thing is impervious to Spell and Trap Cards, but _not _monster effects, _she thought. _Mist Wurm could blow it off the field, but it needs a minimum of three monsters to Synchro Summon… I have to try to stall until I can get them._

_I hate to use Simorgh as a sacrificial lamb, but hopefully, Philip will aim for him… I think he knows about Silpheed's effect. _

She nodded to Philip, then nervously looked at Simorgh as it groaned a little.

"Since I sacrificed my three Toy Soldiers to use Sky Union last turn…" he said, "that means there are three of them in my Graveyard, so I can use Symbol of Heritage to summon one of them."

He played the card, and a weird looking symbol appeared, and the Soldier rose out of the ground.

"Then," he said, as the Warrior and Equip Spell vanished together, "I'll sacrifice him, to summon Vala the Chaser."

Sofia was _very _shocked as the female monster appeared. It almost looked like _her. _The biggest difference was the sci-fi style visor, and the clothing was much different – a green crop-top with tattered edges, green camouflage pants, army boots, and leather gloves, with the hair in a ponytail, but otherwise…

The duplicate smiled at her sweetly. (0 ATK)

"Uh…" she said, looking at her.

"Go ahead," said Philip to the odd Warrior.

"Vala", as he called her, made a great leap, somersaulting as she did, up towards the huge mecha, and a tractor beam from its "eyes" rippled forward, pulling her towards it in mid-leap. Sofia watched as she landed on the apex of the huge craft.

"A Union Monster?" she asked.

"Exactly," he said, "Now for the final part of my strategy… I'll toss one card to play Toy Robot Box…"

He played one of his two cards as he discarded the other, Card Trader. As he did so, three more of the large action figures appeared next to the other one. (0 DEF x3)

"Ugh…" she muttered. "I was kind of hoping you didn't have _that _card…"

"Well, I do," he said. "But I'm getting rid of two of them right now. You see, with Vala at the controls up there, my Ziggurat can launch a direct attack…"

"What the…" said Sofia, looking up.

She had to strain to see, but Vala did indeed seem to be at the control panel of an open-air cockpit. And as she moved some dials, the weaponry of the huge craft started to move and change.

"I just have to sacrifice two other monsters first."

Two of the Toy Robot Tokens disappeared, and two yellow crosshairs appeared in midair to Sofia's left and right, both of them coming together, centering on _her, _and turning red…

Right now, she was weighing the pros and cons of finishing the duel, finding the answers she wanted, and maybe reconciliation, against her other option, which was running the other way, screaming…

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Green Bay, Wisconsin. Unlike the warm weather that Nashville usually had this time of year, it was rather cold in this city.

In a dirty locker room of an equally dirty gymnasium, two brutes landed with a thud against the wall, a revolver, a switchblade knife, and a Bowie knife falling to the concrete floor with a clatter as they did.

The man – seemingly – who had thrown him turned to the side, and saw about four more of the thugs, including an important-looking one in a three-piece suit (off the rack, most likely) with a shotgun.

"Put the gun down before you embarrass yourself, Clem," said the man who had just dealt with the two other thugs.

"Yeah, when you pry it from my cold, dead, lifeless fingers, buster," said the thug. He quickly pumped the chamber and pointed it. "You…"

The next word was a well-known expletive synonym for a male reproductive organ combined with one that might describe the act of eating a lollypop might. He was about to say something else too, but it was cut off. Unfortunately, brief second he needed to set the gun and point it was a little too long. Before he could pull the trigger, a muscular arm from the man he was pointing it at reached forward much quicker than anyone expected, grabbing him by the throat.

Everyone else in the room watched with an expression that combined horror and disbelief as he was effortlessly lifted off the ground… Then there was a very loud snap.

The attacker dropped Clem's body, and then looked at him. He picked up the shotgun.

"You know…" he said, "the way some people are so fond of saying that… You'd think it was actually hard to do…"

He looked at the other thugs. A few of them were armed too, but the hands that were holding the guns were trembling. The much larger man took the shotgun in both of his hands, and bent it into a horseshoe.

"Well?" he asked.

They made up their minds quickly, running the other way, towards the exit.

"Ah, suit yourself…" he said. "No skin off my nose… So let's see what you have in here, Clem…"

He walked to the other side of the locker room, where the door to the office was.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Sofia was lying flat on her back. In a smoldering crater that had been made from the impact of the dozen or so missiles that had hit her.

**(S: 4,300) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 6,600)**

She lifted her arm and felt her torso. She quickly did a mental and manual check. She was in one piece. She sat up, and rubbed the back of her neck.

Having survived a few Shadow Duels, it was obvious now that Philip was just using the plain old Solid Vision system and _not _any sort of black magic, at least none she was familiar with. If he was, that direct attack would have torn her apart…

_Only question is, why? _he thought. _What's he up to?_

The eyes from the thing glowed again, and yet another Toy Robot Token appeared, next to the one he already had.

"You're up, So-So," he said.

She got up, looked at him.

_Okay, let me think… _she thought. _This is… bad… With that Field Spell, if it attacks again, I'll be down to… What am I saying, I'll lose. _

_I can't attack it unless I get rid of those Tokens… And even if I _could, _it would survive one attack because it has a Union Monster… Philip may have changed his deck, but he hasn't lost his touch…_

She drew once, groaning again as even worse burning struck her in the chest.

**(S: 2,700) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 6,600)**

_Hey… This might work…_

"I summon Mist Valley Falcon!"

As she played the card, there was a loud eagle's cry, and two _very _large feathered brown wings appeared behind her, followed by a tall human-like… Well, in regards to gender, the word "androgynous" might have fit best, maybe with a slight edge towards female. Still, like Vala, she looked a little like Sofia, but with much shorter hair. The clothing suggested Native American, with a black crop-top, leather trousers, and fur armbands. A decorated wooded buckler was on her left arm, and a sword that crackled with strange light was in the other. (2,000 ATK)

"Ah, heh…" said Philip. "Still have it, I see…"

"I've kept it all this time…" she said. "And I suppose you of all people remember how it works…"

Silpheed stood up, lifting its wand. (1,700 ATK) Then Falcon lifted the sword high, and lightning fell to it.

"Falcon can only attack if I return one of _my _cards to my hand first. So she'll attack one of those Robots, and return my Field Spell as she does so. Of course, by doing so, Wonderworker is destroyed, which means she's tearing this city down."

Falcon spread her wings and flew straight at one of the small Tokens, the Trap Card shattering as Sofia grabbed the Spell Card. At once, the buildings around them cracked and shattered, falling apart around them like pieces of broken glass. The sword cleaved the Toy Robot down the middle.

Then Silpheed struck next, a potent ray of green light flashing from his wand and smashing a second Token into little pieces.

"Not a bad strategy…" he said. "You eliminated two problems… For now. Still… The biggest one remains…"

"I'll work on that," replied Sofia. "I'll replay my Field Spell, and then you go…"

She played the card again, and the Divine Wind of Mist Valley, again in its pure, unspoiled state, blew gently across Graceland.

Philip drew a card. His hand trembled a minute, as if he was a little afraid of this one...

"Attack Silpheed!" he shouted. "Armageddon artillery!"

It wasn't as bad as last time, but it was bad enough. At least Sofia managed to keep standing as the barrage of missiles exploded around her and her three monster, blowing Silpheed into particles.

**(S: 1,900) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 6,600)**

"Silpheed's effect activates," said Sofia, "it sends the card in your hand to the Graveyard."

"You're the boss…" he muttered.

He discarded it slowly, then breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at his watch again.

"You have an appointment later, Philip?" asked Sofia, her voice sounding a little bitter. "Or are you doing this with someone else later?"

"It's complicated," he said, sadly. "Just move… I'll tell you as much as I can… soon…"

The eyes of the thing glowed again, and another Token fell from the craft, making the total two.

Sofia turned to her deck, then drew.

_Oh yeah… _she thought.

"I'm activating Call of the Haunted!" she shouted.

The Trap lifted, then shimmered, and Baby Roc flew upwards onto the field again. (400 ATK)

"Then, I'll sacrifice it…"

The small bird turned into a small, cloud-like wisp… There was the low rumble of rolling thunder…

A hulking, muscular man standing over seven feet tall with violet skin, jet black hair and feathers on his huge wings, along with a violet tunic covered with odd symbols. (2,100 ATK)

"Mist Valley Executor?" exclaimed Philip. "He… Oh boy…"

The creature's eyes flashed with pure power… Powerful bolts stuck the field, and the chains holding Simorgh turned to dust. Two cards – Vala and Gulliver Chain – appeared in Philip's hand…

"That's right…" said Sofia, with a small chuckle. "His effect blows every Spell and Trap off the field… I'll just reset mine…"

She fit Call of the Haunted and Divine Wind of Mist Valley back into her Disk, alone with After the Storm too. Then Simorgh spread its wings again. (2,700 ATK)

"…and I can clean up! Falcon, Executor…"

The Spell Card she had set slipped back to her hand as Falcon flew towards one robot, making a clean cut with a flyby that cut it in twain. It collapsed into two pieces before disappearing. Then Executor lifted his arm, and lightning fell to his hand from the sky. He threw the bolt forward, blowing the second one to even smaller pieces.

Then Simorgh flew skyward…

"You're all clear!" shouted Sofia. "Take to the air and deliver your Divine Storm of Fury! That thing is going down, Philip!"

Philip sighed sadly…

"So-So, I can't take back all the years I've been gone, but I can see this duel through to the end. That at least can still get a proper conclusion."

His smile was almost bittersweet. Sofia paused. Simorgh did too, it looked down at its master.

"Philip…" she said.

Philip thrust his hand forward, and the ground in front of them started to crack.

"From my Graveyard," he exclaimed, "I use the effect of Divine Barrier Shu!"

The ground burst open, and a huge man, eight feet tall, muscular, with bronze skin, wearing the traditional raiment of a Pharaoh and an ankh around his neck, flew from it. He soared into the sky, positioning himself between Simorgh and Ziggurat.

"I can use the effect of this monster – which I discarded due to Silpheed's effect – because both our monsters are at least Level 6 and the same Attribute. By banishing Shu, both monsters are destroyed, and both players are hit with damage equal to the Attack Score of the monster with the lower Score."

Before Sofia could even question this, Shu lifted a long, wooded scepter to the heavens… The wind around them rose to hurricane strength…

Simorgh let out a screech as lightning struck it, blowing it into green feathers and dust, while it seemed like the Ziggurat's main core generator ruptured, an explosion blasting from its center. Sparks flew from the huge airship as flames spouted from its hull…

Sofia screamed and Philip covered his head as hot, burning slag rained down on both of them and the giant thing plummeted, appearing to crash behind Highway 51.

**(S: 0) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 3,900)**

Sofia looked at him in silence for a tense minute or two. Her face and clothing was covered with what looked like ash and dirt, and they was only slightly worse off than his.

He just led out a sad sigh. He deactivated his Disk, and took his deck from it.

"Philip?" asked Sofia. "You… You… Aren't you going to…"

He walked up to her.

"You're as strong as ever…" he said. "You can still fight… I had to make sure…"

"Make sure?" she asked. "Philip…"

He slowly put his arms around her waist, then he held her close.

"Sofia…" he said. "I left because… Because I had found something out… I didn't want them to try to use you to get to me. But… Things are heating up. I can't be certain that won't happen anymore."

"Philip, are you in trouble?" she asked. "I'm with the Shadowchasers, they can…"

"Sofia, here's the thing…" he said. "There's one thing that keeps the world from plunging into chaos and anarchy. One thing that preserves peace and keeps civilization from falling into ruin. It's a very fragile thing that would be very easy to destroy if the wrong people found it.

"It's best you didn't know more than that. But… I'll try to stay one step ahead of them. I can't promise we can ever achieve anything close to victory, but…"

Then he kissed her. Sofia closed her eyes. For a moment, she felt the same passionate rush she felt when they kissed the first time… But it was tainted this time… It was as if he was kissing her in a way to express his love _and _kissing her goodbye at the same time…

It took her a few minutes to open them. By the time she did, the feeling was gone…

…and so was he.

She stood there for a long time, thinking about what had happened… She had no idea what to do. She took her mobile phone from her jean pocket, and stared at it for a minute or two.

She had already tried using star-six-nine when he called the first time, but as she had expected, his number was a private line.

She was with the Shadowchasers, and Philip was a Shadowkind, but with no proof that he had done anything illegal, she couldn't use her authority to track him down. She doubted she could convince anyone that he was a threat to himself or anyone else, or that he needed treatment.

Still… She wanted to know what was going on…

Finally, she looked a number up on the speed dial and punched it.

After a few rings, a voice with a British accent answered: "Yes, Ms. Witt?"

"Martin?" she asked. "Remember that favor you said you owe me?"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**SKY UNION (Spell Card)**

**Normal Spell**

**Image: **The silhouette of Air Fortress Ziggurat flying amid the clouds.

**Card Description:** Tribute three Monsters you control. Special Summon one "Air Fortress Ziggurat" from your hand, deck, or Graveyard.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**AIR FORTRESS ZIGGURAT (Monster Card)**

**Machine/Wind/Effect/Lvl8/2,500ATK/2,000DEF**

**Effect: **This card cannot be Normal Summoned or set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except via the effect of "Sky Union". This card is not affected by your opponent's Spell or Trap Cards. During each of your End Phases, Special Summon 1 "Toy Robot Token" (Machine-Type/Earth/Level 1/0 ATK/0 DEF) in Defense Position. "Toy Robot Tokens" cannot attack. If you control any "Toy Robot Tokens", your opponent cannot select any Monsters you control as attack targets except "Toy Robot Tokens".

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**TOY ROBOT BOX (Spell Card)**

**Quickplay Spell**

**Image: **Three Sentai-style toy action figures.

**Card Description: **Discard 1 card from your hand. Special Summon 3 "Toy Robot Tokens" (Machine-Type/Earth/Level 1/0 ATK/0 DEF) in Defense Position. "Toy Robot Tokens" cannot attack.

_Note: "Sky Union", "Air Fortress Ziggurat", and "Toy Robot Box" were first used by Amelda in the original anime._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**TOY SOLDIER (Monster Card)**

**Warrior/Earth/Effect/Lvl3/800ATK/300DEF**

**Effect: **During your Standby Phase that you control this card, you may Special Summon up to 1 "Toy Soldier" from your hand or deck.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**TOY CANNON**_** (**_**Trap Card)**

**Normal Trap**

**Image: **Two Toy Soldiers manning a 19th Century-style cannon.

**Effect: **Activate when your opponent Normal Summons a Monster. Switch that Monster to face-up Defense Position and inflict 400 points of damage to your opponent.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**GULLIVER CHAIN**** (Trap Card)**

**Continuous Trap**

**Image: **Three Toy Soldiers amid a tangle of chains.

**Effect: **Activate when an opposing Monster switches to face-up Defense Position. Equip this card to that Monster as an Equip Spell. If the Equipped Monster switches to Attack Position, destroy it.

Note: "Toy Soldier", "Toy Cannon", and "Gulliver Chain" were first used by Napolean in "Yu-Gi-Oh GX".

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**WONDERWORKER (Trap Card)**

**Continuous Trap**

**Image: **A female elf sorceress in exotic clothing, casting an eldritch spell.

**Card Description: **You can activate this card when your opponent has a Field Spell Card face-up on the field. Select 1 Field Spell Card in your deck that does not have the same name as the Field Spell Card currently on the field and banish it; So long as this card remains on the field, the effect of the currently active Field Spell Card is changed to that of the banished card. If that Field Spell leaves the field, destroy this card.

_Note: "Wonderworker" first appeared in "Yu-Gi-Oh: Soul of Silicon"._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**VALA THE CHASER (Monster Card)**

**Warrior/Union/Wind/Effect/Lvl5/0ATK/0DEF**

**Effect: **Once per turn you can either: Target 1 Machine-Type Monster you control; equip this card to that target, OR: Unequip this card and Special Summon it in face-up Attack Position While equipped by this effect the equipped monster can attack directly if you Tribute two other Monsters during your Main Phase 1. (A monster can only be equipped with 1 Union Monster a time. If the equipped monster would be destroyed, destroy this card instead.)

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**CITY OF ETERNITY (Spell Card)**

**Field Spell**

**Image: **A city in ruins under a dark, ominous sky. In the background, and evil-looking temple looms on a rocky peak.

**Card Description:** During the End Phase of the turn players' turn, if that player any face-up monsters that were summoned on a previous turn, and that player made no attacks that turn, place on "Blighted Counter" on that player's face-up monster with the highest Level. During each End Phase, the turn player takes 800 points of damage for each "Blighted Counter" on his or her Monsters, so long as this card remains on the field. If this card is destroyed, you may add 1 "Eternity" Field Spell from your deck to your hand except a "City of Eternity".

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**DIVINE BARRIER SHU (Monster Card)**

**Fairy/Wind/Effect/Lvl9/0ATK/0DEF**

**Effect: **If this card is in your Graveyard, you may activate its effect by banishing it when your Lvl 6 or higher monster is attacked by a Lvl 6 or higher opposing monster that is the same Attribute. Destroy both monsters; both players take damage equal to the ATK of the monster with the higher ATK.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Falagar: When Philip had disappeared five years previous, without a trace, without an explanation, and without even saying goodbye, it left Sofia with questions, and with a pining that wouldn't go away. Long nights were spent wondering where he was, and whether foul play was involved. There were times when she entertained the possibility that he was dead, or that wherever he was, he was there against his will. **_

_**She had at first thought the phone call and his wanting to see her again was a miracle, and a sign that she'd get answers. Instead, their brief meeting only presented more questions.**_

_**Most people would dismiss what he had said as the words spoken by a paranoid "kook" who was suspicious of everything, but… Most people didn't know him the way she did. **_

_**Her pining and confusion was gone now. She still wanted answers, but would work harder to find them. Still, there was one problem: They say "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", but when you don't know what direction to take the first step, how does one start?**_

_**Unfortunately, we have to leave Sofia for now, and go westward, as more familiar faces appear next chapter, and an even bumpier ride is ahead. "We Didn't Start the Fire" is next.**_


	3. We Didn't Start the Fire

_**With some conspiracy theories, timing is everything. A conspiracy theory may not have happened if the event that spawned it had happened at a different time. Take the case of the disappearance of aviator Amelia Earhart.**_

_**She and her partner Fred Noonan vanished while attempting to circumnavigate the globe in an aircraft, not to be the first, but if successful, this would have been the longest trip ever made this way. The only clue to their disappearance was their final radio signal, made upon their approach to Howland Island, which suggested they had miscalculated their position.**_

_**Now, the most logical explanation would be that her plane had run out of fuel or had engine trouble, causing it to crash in the middle of the ocean. The currents would have carried their bodies and the wreckage of the plane hundreds of miles away by the time search teams had gotten to the spot, making recovery efforts nearly impossible.**_

_**So why did timing cause conspiracy theories? The Pacific War.**_

_**Some people couldn't shake the theory that this was **__**not **__**an accident, and that Earhart and Noonan were actually spies who were working for the United States government on an espionage mission to spy on the Japanese. These people claim that they were **__**shot **__**down, and possibly executed by the Japanese or died as POWs. They also claim that the United States did nothing to rescue them **__**in order to maintain plausible deniability.**_

_**This theory may have been fed primarily by **__**Flight for Freedom, **__**a 1943 movie**__**with a similar plot. (The pilot in the movie was not Earhart, but she seemed to have been based on her.) For a long time after World War II, a place in Tinian, about five miles northwest of Saipan, was rumored to be the unmarked graves of the two aviators; in 2004, however, government funded archaeologists dug up the site, and found no trace of human remains at all. **_

_**My opinion? Amelia Earhart's body will likely never be found… But in all likelihood, the myths of foul play surrounding her death are just that. Myths.**_

**0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**CHAPTER TWO**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**We Didn't Start the Fire**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

It may have been warm for October in Memphis… But in Roswell, New Mexico, it was eighty-five degrees. Of course, it was a relief from the much hotter temperature of the earlier summer months.

Locals here and in Arizona liked to say "it was a dry heat"; visitors tended to think that was a joke thought up by the residents to make people think that the lack of humidity made the unbearable summer heat pleasant.

In any case, hot noontime temperatures in cities like Roswell tended to make places with air conditioning – like the Roswell Museum and Art Center – big draws at that time of day. Today was no exception.

As the noon crowd came in, a man who looked about sixty, with a short beard and neatly trimmed, long hair, along with khaki outdoorsman clothing, walked in. A young woman who looked like she might have been his daughter was next to him, wearing a sweatshirt and shorts, with her blonde hair tied in pigtails.

This was, in fact, none other than veteran Shadowchaser Edgar McDonald; the young woman was Maddie Fulson, formerly his sixth successful apprentice, and now his partner. As for why the two were in Roswell, well… It had been a false alarm…

"The guys in charge really should start taking refresher courses in basic Shadow identification…" he muttered.

"Yeah, so should you," said Maddie, with a smirk, "especially after you melted that statue up in Salt Lake City last week…"

"Point taken…" he sighed.

He looked at his Duel Disk.

"I hope this new upgrade that the boss promised is finished soon," he said. "He's okay, but the other bigwigs at Headquarters drive me crazy."

"Have _you _ever considered quitting field work and applying for one of the positions there?" asked Maddie. "I mean, I haven't met a single member who knows you who _wouldn't _give a recommendation."

"True, but then I'd have to work with them," he said, "and like I said, they _drive me crazy."_

He glanced at his watch.

"Ah, well, we have some free time… At least we can take a breather here… Art tends to be expensive, but at least _looking _at it is cheap. And relaxing."

Maddie looked around, and saw a large, heavy-set man with a handlebar mustache in an expensive suit – the curator, she assumed – talking to a woman in an office suit.

"Yeah…" she replied. "A museum is a safe place… Cold, beautiful, and you aren't allowed to touch anything…Where did I hear that?"

She looked at the current display. It seemed like the general theme of museum now was "fantastic art", a relatively new branch of surrealism. A painting by Salvador Dali, the master himself, dominated the central area, and several paintings by other artists were around it…

A creepy painting of a tree at night was in one corner (the title was _The Goblin Tree, _and the artist was Anne Sudworth), next to it was a picture of a scantily clad and erotic female alien (_Space Angel, _no signature), and to the opposite side, a painting of a stern-faced young woman with a low-cut, silver uniform at the console of a spaceship (_Commander, _by Boris Vallejo)…

Maddie looked around. There sure were a lot of Shadows here today. She had no idea there were so many in this city. A lilend was writing things down on an iPad, looking back and forth from one painting to another as she did, a raegir was speaking on a mobile as he did so. (_Makes sense, _thought Maddie.)

Then _she _entered, and everyone in the museum turned to take notice. Even the Mundane humans couldn't help but look at the tall woman with a near-perfect figure, long, flowing hair, and rather… exotic clothing. (A white top with a _dangerously _plunging neckline and petticoat with a scarlet sarong and ribbon holding back her hair, bangles on her wrists and ankles, hoop earrings, and most remarkably, _no shoes._)

Of course, as remarkable as she looked to the Mundane humans, Maddie could see beyond that. What most could see as plain Caucasian skin was actually almost bronze (not bronze as in richly tanned, bronze to the point of being almost metallic if you looked at her in the right light), raven hair was actually the color of fire, and piercing, green eyes were actually like pools of liquid fire that were actually _more _piercing.

There was a loud cough. Maddie turned, and saw that it came from the heavy-set man in the suit.

"Excuse me…" he muttered to the woman he had been talking to, and turned away.

Maddie turned back, and the odd woman was gone.

_Eh? _she thought.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Again, in Great Britain, but in a much more business-oriented place, another man in a suit – but much thinner – walked into a place full of high-tech equipment, where a woman in a white lab suit was working writing on a clipboard near a high-tech monitor.

"Oh, uh, Jabels!" she said, suddenly, turning to greet him. "I was just going to…"

"…call me?" he said, in his usual stuffy tone. "I've left numerous messages, you realize…"

"Yes, well…" she said. "Fortunately, it's ready for testing… Gary!"

One of the other men on the other side of the room fumbled with something at a table.

"And only three days past deadline…" muttered Jabels, as the aide brought the item – the style of Duel Disk used by the Shadowchasers – to them.

"Oh, but it's worth waiting for," she said. "With the technology that you provided, and I have no idea where it came from…"

"An old, ahem, friend of the organization who we hope will be making more contributions soon," replied Jabels. "But Ms. Phelps…"

"Right, right…" she said, picking it up.

She opened the Extra Deck chamber of the Disk, and Jalal's card slipped out.

"Right now, our new communications grid is up, and simply by having this card in _any _Duel Disk, an authorized user will have access to that grid. In simple terms, it will mean that any Shadowchaser will be able to contact any other Shadowchaser, anytime, anywhere, so long as each has a Duel Disk.

"With this system in use, disasters like what almost happened with that giant robot in Antarctica can be stopped before they start. It's like… Big Brother, but not evil!"

"Okay, just watch it there…" said Jabels. "Not the best comparison…"

He picked up the Disk.

"Still… It has possibilities… I'll be meeting with him in a couple of days to give him something… I'll have to thank him then…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Mom, isn't it a little early to start making plans for that?" asked Maddie into her mobile phone. "It's a month and a half away? YES I'll be there! Where else would I be? Oh, come on, you talk like that happens all the time…"

Then she shrieked as the cold silence of the museum was interrupted by an alarm. She turned, and saw that the strange woman – the gypsy or whatever – had leapt over the felt rope in front of a set of paintings on the wall to the right of the Salvador and grabbed one of them off the wall.

"Mom?" she shouted. "I'll call you back…"

"HEY!" shouted Edgar towards the woman.

The strange woman's eyes glowed brighter, and she pointed, quickly muttering something in a language that they both recognized as Ignan, a language used by Fire Elementals. And the results were to be expected… A stream of flames shot at Edgar. He quickly grabbed hold of Maddie with his left arm, then shielded himself with his right, and the fire was absorbed into a steel armband he was carrying.

The strange woman turned the other way, darting down the hallway, towards the fire escape.

"Stop her!" screamed the portly curator.

"Ugh, I did _not _want to deal with a nasty fire sorceress today…" groaned Edgar, as he and Maddie nonetheless ran after her.

"She's a fire genasi, right?" asked Maddie. "Why on earth would she steal _that _painting with a priceless Salvador Dali not ten feet away?"

"No idea," answered Edgar.

He kicked the door open, and saw the woman running down the street with the painting under her arm.

"Of course… Art appraisal isn't my specialty, but I would think that you'd have to be a pretty dumb art thief to try lifting something from a museum in broad daylight without a car or something parked outside…"

Of course, as they started to chase the thief down, the fact that they were chasing a genasi was on their mind too… A very mysterious and rare type of Shadowkind.

They were plane-touched beings, much like tieflings and aasimar, but much, _much _rarer than either. Instead of being the descendants of unions between human and fiend or human and angel, a genasi was the end result of a coupling of a human and an elemental being. Of course, in most cases, such creatures weren't even biologically compatible with humans. Bad jokes about their origins aside, powerful magic was often involved in the original siring.

It got worse. A lot of genasi were, in one way or another, connected to Tharizdun, who in his pseudonym of the Elder Elemental Eye, made several bargains with dark elemental powers, granting them access to unholy rituals that involved things… best not spoken about.

Of course, good or evil, genasi tended to see themselves as wild children of the elemental forces, embracing freedom found in the raw power of the elements at their purest states.

As the two Shadowchasers ran after her, Edgar held his hand in front of Maddie.

"Slow down…" he said. "She isn't going anywhere… That leads to a dead end…"

The two of them walked into the alley, which opened into a large courtyard that held a makeshift basketball court, used for a high school on the other side, separated by a large mesh fence. She was struggling with a door that led into the rest of the schoolyard, only to find it was locked shut with a chain and padlocked.

Edgar wasn't kidding. Her escape route was cut off.

She turned to them, clutching the painting, giving them a look that was daring them to come any further.

"Ma'am, I don't think that belongs to you…" said Edgar.

"Go away…" she warned. "It's mine! You hear me!"

"Ma'am, listen…" said Edgar.

"Really, _really _Ms. Alva!" shouted a voice.

The overweight curator ran into the entrance of the court, huffing and puffing as he did.

"Ms. Alva, this is _insane!_" he exclaimed.

"You know this woman, Mr., uh…" said Maddie.

"Clayton," he replied. "She's a friend of my wife… Well, actually, more like an acquaintance… My wife started going to this New Age massage therapist, this Yolanda Alva person… Last month. It seemed harmless…

"Then, just two days ago, she barges into the museum – happens when the elementary school is having a field trip, naturally – and demands that painting, saying it's hers. When I asked her to leave, she yelled at me using… Uh… Questionable language…"

"It wasn't 'questionable', you big, fat, idiot, you knew exactly what I meant!" shouted Yolanda.

"You aren't exactly helping your case, lady," said Maddie.

"What did she…" asked Edgar.

"No idea!" exclaimed the curator. "That painting has been with the museum since before I was curator! Since before I was _born _in fact!"

"I'm not letting your filthy hands take it back from me…" she cursed.

"Ms. Alva, take it easy…" said Edgar.

He started to walk towards her.

"I think you're confused for some reason, if you just let me…"

She snarled, and lifted her free hand. A ball of fire surrounded it.

"I'll burn it to ashes before I let anyone have it…" she threatened.

"Ooh…" groaned Clayton. "The insurance company is never going to believe this…"

"Ms. Alva…" said Edgar. "Think about what would happen… Not only would I arrest you for it, he'd be well within his rights to sue you for whatever it costs, and that's probably a lot. Do you _really _want to spend God knows how long working to pay for it?"

She shivered a little.

"It's mine…" she said, softly.

Then she held up her left arm, and a Duel Disk unfolded from it.

"If that's the only way I can get you to give it up," he said, "then so be it…"

"He's going to wager it!" shouted Clayton. "Now wait just a minute here…"

"Calm down…" said Maddie. "I've known this guy for years…"

She backed up to him.

"Give him about five rounds… Most of his opponents give up by then… Edgar is kind of… Intimidating…"

**(Edgar: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Yolanda: 8,000)**

Edgar unfolded a device, placing a holo-imager over right-eye, Maddie complying with hers. The virtual reality grid covered the lot, and the two Disks auto-shuffled.

Edgar drew five. His eyes quickly fixated on one of the cards, which he moved to the rightmost spot in his hand. Then he looked over the other four.

Not the best, he thought, but not the worst either…

"You move first, Ms. Alva," he said.

"Just call me Yolanda…" she said, sounding a little less angry than before.

Good, good, he thought, as she drew the sixth card. Calm down now… Hopefully we can end this well…

"I'll start with the Spell Card, Cards from the Sky," she said.

As the card appeared, a golden sunbeam cascaded from below, and soft motes of light fell on her deck.

"By banishing a Light-Attribute Fairy from my hand and skipping my Battle Phase this turn, I draw twice…"

She drew, then looked at them briefly.

"Next, I'll play Light of Redemption…" she continued.

As another Spell appeared, the light intensified, and a choir started to sing.

"I'll pay 800 Life Points, and I can recover the monster I just banished…"

A larger mote fell from above in a spiraling pattern turning into a card as she caught it.

That was… That was pretty smart… thought Maddie.

"I summon to the field… Arcana Force III – The Empress!" she shouted.

The light changed, becoming far less soothing, turning rather blinding and searing. A female figure appeared in front of Yolanda, an alien-like creature, but not attractive at all. She was gaunt, with an enlarged, bony cranium over a sallow, shrunken face; she had a blue leotard over a thin torso with spindly limbs, spikes over the shoulders, and a gossamer cape. (1,300 ATK)

Ugh… thought Edgar.

He recognized it, and was a little disappointed. When she first said she was using Light Fairies, he was hoping for monsters that were friendlier than _these…_

The Empress' card appeared above the monster, and then started to rotate, clockwise.

"All up to luck," said Yolanda, "because like the tarot card she resembles, the Empress can grant a boon or a bane, depending on whether she's upright or inverted…"

The card stopped, landing upright.

"Seems the toss says I win," she said, "which means I can summon another Arcana Force monster whenever you summon a monster… It's your move…"

**(E: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: 7,200)**

_That means I'd best get rid of her quickly… _thought Edgar, drawing a new card.

"I'll set a monster for now…" he said.

"And like I said," replied Yolanda, "I summon Arcana Force VII – The Chariot!"

As she said that, an odd contraption, for want of a better term, floated up from below. It was saucer-shaped, with eyes around the circumference, two odd spigots below, and a smaller saucer mounted above, with grasping mechanical hands attached to metal coils. (1,700 ATK)

Another card appeared, once again starting to spin.

_If she loses this toss, I can take care of the immediate problem right now… _thought Edgar.

Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking. Again, it came to a stop upright.

"Okay, third time's the charm?" asked the curator, nervously.

"Don't panic, people," said Edgar. "I'll end with one card here…"

A set card appeared in his Spell Zone, then he nodded to Yolanda.

She nodded back, then drew a card.

"I summon Arcana Force I – The Magician!" she shouted.

Another weird, alien-looking creature appeared, this one even thinner and lankier. Its bald head had an elongated face with two eyes and no other features, it wore a high collar and flared shoulder pads (but no actual shirt) very baggy pants with vertical stripes, and an odd pair of pointed shoes. (1,100 ATK)

"Are those parachute pants?" asked Clayton.

"Your guess is as good as mine," replied Maddie.

Again, the card started to turn around and around, and then stopped at the upright position again.

"_Oh, merde!" _groaned Edgar, under his breath.

"Destroy his set monster, Chariot!" she shouted, as the contraption aimed its spigots. "Master Blast!"

The thing aimed and fired a concentrated beam – like a knife – of light at the set monster, but a metal, curved blade appeared, blocking it. A scary-looking grim reaper was holding it. (200 DEF)

_Phew! _thought Maddie. _Hopefully Spirit Reaper can keep them at bay for now…_

"I can't do anything else…" muttered Yolanda.

"Then it's my turn…" said Edgar.

He drew a card, and considered it, along with the others. Then he looked at the Chariot.

_Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone… _he thought. _Or maybe even three…_

"I summon Emissary of the Afterlife," he said. "He's a grim reaper too, but… He's a little more up-front…"

With a low, spooky moan, a ghostly, skull-faced demon holding a larger scythe floated onto the field. (1,600 ATK) Edgar looked at Empress and then at Yolanda.

"Well?" she said.

_She must not have another… _he thought. _Oh well…_

The Fiend howled and flew towards the Empress, who scowled at it as it lifted its scythe. There was a slash, then the Empress made a face that with a look of shock as the Emissary appeared back on Edgar's side in a dark haze… Then she fell apart, bisected at the waist.

_**(E: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: 6,900)**_

"I think I'll end my turn there… It's not too late to reconsider…"

"No…" said Yolanda, as she drew. "I'm not letting you have it… Chariot, kill that thing!"

The strange Fairy fired its death ray again, cutting the Emissary down the center like a laser torch; it shattered when the beam reached the halfway point.

"Now I use the Chariot's upright effect…" she continued.

"Yes, you get to summon my Emissary…" interrupted Edgar, "but before that, Emissary itself has an effect, letting both players take a Level 3 or lower Normal Monster from their decks."

"I don't; have one and I don't care!" she replied.

"Oh?" said Edgar.

He took the card and looked at it. Then he turned it forward.

"Do you care now?"

Yolanda gulped, and the expression was one that signified that the answer was "Yes". The card Edgar was holding was Left Arm of the Forbidden One.

"Exodia…" she said, a quiver in her voice.

He put it with his other cards, and Emissary of the Afterlife appeared on Yolanda's field. (1,600 ATK)

"Yolanda…" he said, "take it from someone who's been there… Losing to this deck is _not _pleasant…"

"And I can vouch for that!" shouted Maddie.

"Thank you, Maddie…" he continued, before turning back to Yolanda. "Seriously, it's just a painting!"

"It's your turn…" she said.

Edgar shook his head, and drew. Then he set two cards, causing a monster and a set card behind it to appear.

"Yolanda, please…" he said. "Why don't you just stop this so we can discuss it like reasonable adults?"

"No…" she replied.

"Look, before I finish my turn, can I just ask _why _you think that painting is yours?" he asked.

"_Think?" _she shouted.

"Okay, okay…" he said. "Let me rephrase that… Why is it so important to you?"

"I modeled for it!" she said, still sternly, but not as loud. "The guy who painted it… He promised I could have it…"

"Uh…" said Maddie.

"That's impossible…" said Clayton. "Like I said, that painting was donated a long, _long _time ago, in… 1951, by an anonymous donor. She can't be _that _old…"

"Wait... 1951?" asked Maddie. "Wasn't that…"

Clayton let out a long, tired sigh.

"Yes, yes…" said Clayton, sounding a little embarrassed. "It was five years after the famous 'Roswell UFO Incident'. Folks around here do like the publicity of that little yarn, but…"

His voice sank to a whisper.

"Let me be honest, ma'am, I'm not saying I'm a skeptic on such matters, but if you want my personal opinion, I think that whatever the truth of that whole mess was, it's become two mixed up with rumors, innuendo, and outright hoaxes, to the point that no-one will _ever _find out what happened.

"We didn't have this conversation…"

Maddie looked at the painting, and she noticed something… It _did _sort of look like Yolanda… What she might look like if she were an alien… But…

_She'd have to be about… A hundred years old… _she thought. _Doesn't make sense, genasi can't live that long… usually…_

_And if she did have some way to gain longevity, you'd think she'd have an easier way to get that painting…_

"Then it's your move…" said Edgar. "If you won't listen to reason, then I'm more than prepared to use as much force as necessary!"

**(E: 7,900) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: 6,900)**

Yolanda drew a card, then looked at him closely.

"I'm activating my Spell Card, Magician's Scales," she said. "By sacrificing one of my Arcana Force monsters, I can get any Spell Card I want from my deck."

"Gee that's kind of… powerful…" said Maddie.

"But before we get to that," continued Yolanda, "because I used a Spell Card this turn, The Magician's Attack Score doubles."

(2,200 ATK)

"Now then…"

The Chariot disappeared, and Yolanda quickly snatched up a Spell Card as it floated up to her hand.

"Oh, you'd better believe it," she said. "This one's pretty good too… Necro Sacrifice!

"First, I choose two monsters in _my _Graveyard, and then send them to _your _side of the field… But, it's up to you whether they're attacking or defending…"

"Uh, I think defending is the better option…" said Edgar.

There were two flashes rushing to either side of him, turning into the Empress (1,300 DEF) and the Chariot (1,700 DEF), kneeling and shielding with their arms (or in the Chariot's case, what passed for them).

_I've got two more monsters, _he thought, _but I really don't know if that's a good thing right now…_

Then the two cards appeared above the two tarot monsters, and started to spin… Then the Chariot's card stopped upside-down, and then the Empress' did too.

"Great Jehoshaphat…"he muttered, under his breath.

"Due to the Chariot's inverted effect, it switches sides from you to me," continued Yolanda.

The apparatus floated over to her side of the field, turning to face Edgar.

"And now, because I sent two monsters to your side of the field using Necro Sacrifice, I can summon a Level 7 monster with no _actual _sacrifice. I summon Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon!"

There was a giant cloud of freezing mist, and a huge… thing appeared next to the other monsters. It didn't look like a moon at all, it looked like a giant cryogenic chamber with a small alien inside, robotic arms to each side, and a mass of metal tentacles underneath. (2,800 ATK)

"Lord, she has enough there for a whole invasion force!" shouted Maddie.

"No… problem…" said Edgar. "Nothing I… can't handle…"

Then the Moon's card appeared, and again, started to spin… Maddie cried out and hit her forehead with her hand as it came up upright _again._

"Good grief, he just _can't _catch a break today!"

"It gets worse…" said Yolanda. "Because I summoned a monster with the Empress on your side of the field with her inverted effect, you discard one of your cards…"

Edgar stopped for a minute. He looked at his hand of four cards.

"Whatever you say…" he said.

"But don't worry…" she continued, "if she's too much of a burden…"

A device at the peak of the huge chamber started drawing motes of energy in, as the whole device started to shimmer. Then, a fiery beam of pulsating light shot from it as the energy was expended, hitting the Empress and blowing her into globs of light.

"Next I'll use the Chariot again on your other monster…"

The thing aimed, and a monstrous, red-skinned creature with eyes all over its body appeared kneeling on the card.

"Ho-boy…" said Maddie.

The beam of light shot, impaling it through the chest and smashing it to bits.

"That was Big Eye…" said Edgar. "And via its Flip Effect, I can look at the top five cards on my deck, and then put them back any way I want… So let's see…"

He lifted the cards off his deck, then looked at them, trying very hard to keep a poker face, which was getting even harder by the minute. Not even _one _of the remaining three components to Exodia was there.

_If I didn't know better, I'd say she's able to alter probability in some way, _he thought. _But… Something just seems wrong…_

He made two adjustments, then put them back.

"I can't get by your Spirit Reaper yet," said Yolanda, "so I have to end…"

Edgar drew, then took one of his cards, switching Spirit Reaper on his Disk for it.

"I'm sacrificing this guy for my Tongue Twister…" he said.

There was a loud hiss, and a very unlikely monster appeared. It looked like… Well, a giant cross between a snake and a tongue, with one eye, glaring menacingly at Yolanda. Well… As best it could. (400 ATK)

"Mmph!" she said, covering her mouth in an attempt to stifle a laugh.

"I know, I know, it looks pretty ridiculous," replied Edgar, as he tapped his Disk, "but I can use it for my Spiritual Dark Art – Greed."

As the Trap lifted up, the odd Fiend vanished.

"By sacrificing this Dark monster, I can draw twice… unless you counter it by showing me a Spell Card in your hand."

Yolanda's expression quickly turned serious. She didn't say anything, but flipped one of her cards around. Edgar groaned a little. It was Cup of Ace.

_Could have been worse… _he thought.

"Nonetheless," he said, "I still get to use the effect of Tongue Twister itself to make two draws."

"But you already summoned this turn, so they better be good ones," replied Yolanda, as he took two cards.

"Your turn…" he replied.

"Guess that answers my question," she said, as she made _her _draw. "First of all, the Moon's upright effect activates now, and I get a Moon Token."

The glass bubble on the Moon burst open with a freezing vapor and viscous,blue liquid pouring out, along with the small alien. (0 ATK)

"Since you know I have this, I'll play it now…"

The Cup of Ace appeared, and then started to turn. Again, The Magician rose to a Score of 2,200.

_Come on, come on… _thought Edgar.

Unfortunately, it landed upright again, and he shook his head in frustration.

"I get to draw twice because of that," said Yolanda, making two draws, "and now… Attack directly! Cosmic Crush Cannon!"

The weapon at the top of the Moon started to draw in power as Edgar's Trap Card lifted up.

"I use Gravity Bind!" he shouted, as ripples of energy started to wave over the lot. "There's a disadvantage to having monsters that powerful…"

"So how do you like that?" asked Maddie.

"I actually like it a lot…" said Yolanda, with an evil-looking smile. "I'll call off _that _attack, but… Now that you've used that Trap, I can feed it to my Trap Eater!"

"What?" said Edgar.

Then he was cut off as a giggling Fiend with a _very _big mouth flew at the Gravity Bind card, and swallowed it in one gulp. The Tuner smiled at him with its toothy grin. (1,900 ATK)

"Oh boy…" he said.

"Now I can sacrifice my Moon Token and Emissary of the Afterlife," she said, as the two monsters disappeared.

_Here it comes… _thought Edgar, as a flaming portal of pure light erupted between them.

"Arcana Force XXI…" shouted Yolanda. _"The World!"_

The… creature that rose out of the vortex was bigger than the Moon, even less subtle, and hard to describe in any secondhand terms. About half of its body, shaped like an inverted cone standing on end, didn't seem solid; it was more like a void in physical shape, made stranger by the _other _half, which was obviously robotic. The robotic part looked even stranger, the proportionately small head surrounded by a metal ring-collar combination with golden orbs evenly spaced around it, a plate covering its torso with a pulsating, orange core where the navel might be on a human, and two long, strong-looking metal arms with three sharp, metal, knife-like claws at each end. (3,100 ATK)

Clayton took a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his brow. And it wasn't just the heat making him perspire.

"This reminds me of that time I was appraising a collection at a museum in Geneva," he muttered. "One work on display was Edvard Munch's _The Scream…"_

"You're comparing _that _to Munch's work?" asked Maddie, turning to him.

"Of course not…" replied the curator. "I've always wondered _why _the figure in that painting was screaming… Well… Something like this would probably be a good reason…"

"Very funny…" replied Yolanda.

"Before you do anything else," replied Edgar, "I get to use Emissary's effect again…"

Yolanda tensed a little, and Edgar took another card from his deck. He looked back at Yolanda.

"Still not complete yet?" she asked. "What a shame…"

The card appeared above the World, then started to turn, around and around… Then it stopped right-side-up again.

_This is the type of day where I end up wishing I'd stayed in bed, _thought Edgar.

"I'll set two cards of my own," continued Yolanda, as two face-down cards appeared behind her monsters, "but I'll be able to use them quickly, because the World's upright effect lets me sacrifice two monsters…"

Two burning beams of light shot from the World's eyes, piercing through Trap Eater and the Magician and turning both to dust.

"…and your turn is skipped, gramps… meaning it's my turn again…"

_Oh, she's toast… _thought Maddie, as she watched Yolanda make her draw. _If there's one thing Edgar does _not _like, it's people who call him "gramps". _

_I just hope he isn't in over his head…_

The cryogenic chamber opened again, and a second Token jumped out, this time crouching in Defense Mode. (0 DEF)

"Attack him directly!" shouted Yolanda. "Savage Genesis!"

As the eyes glowed again, the sky darkened, and blood-red clouds started to appear above…

"From my Graveyard, I banish Necro Gardna!" shouted Edgar.

As the thunderous cosmic death ray blasted towards him, a dark Warrior leapt in front to take the blow. He was vaporized, but at least the bolt missed.

"Nice…" said Yolanda.

The Moon's weapon started sucking in energy again.

"Got anything else?"

Unfortunately for Edgar, the answer to that was a definite "no".

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

About ten minutes earlier, Jalal was at his desk once again. He rubbed his chin for a minute, and then started typing again.

_As you might expect, I've spent a lot of time studying dragons, their biology, their habits, their history and culture (what little is known about it). Some scholars say that they are the most powerful of Shadowkind, and that assumption may not be far off. _

_They're complicated too, their personalities almost as varied as humans. Some are good, some are evil, some are very serious, and others are whimsical. Some dragons are social beings who welcome attention of other races, while others prefer to live in isolation killing – or at very least, driving away – anyone who bothers them…_

_But all dragons are egotistical. (If there's ever been a humble, shy, dragon with a lack of self-respect and confidence, or even a dragon who knowingly or willingly served another mortal being via its own free will, I've never heard of one.) Good or evil, they see themselves as superior to creatures less powerful and younger than they are (which is most of them) and tend to lord over creatures they do associate with. Of course, folks who are willing to argue with a dragon when it boasts that it's better than humans – at least to its face – are few and far between. _

_When a race has a lifespan that is measured in millennia, rather than decades, they tend to look upon those other races as humans do upon mayflies. _

_I'm not saying my father was an exception to this. Among dragons, there are no exceptions. He wasn't a bad parent, but in many ways, his arrogance was his downfall, as it is for many seeking the goal he did. _

_It's little surprise than the most common known ways of actually gaining eternal life (like lichdom) are evil and vile methods that often require the deaths of other sentient beings. Dictators and tyrants want to rule the world, but they eventually realize that, even if they succeed, they can't take it with them. Some, like the Egyptian Pharaohs try to gain a type of immortality by building grand tombs and temples to display their greatness for future generations… Some… Take darker paths…_

_Half-dragons are little better than their sires, and being one myself, I can relate. They can be haughty, obnoxious snobs sometimes, like arrogant bluebloods who think their birthright makes them special. Maybe you know the type, the ones who tend to dress in expensive suits and use terms like "prole" or "plebian", the type that the manager of the fanciest restaurant in town would love to kick out, if not for the fact that he spends more there in a week that most customers do in a year. _

_I don't claim complete innocence there. But, having no choice but to accept the eternal life my father won, I've learned a few things from spending ten centuries around humans. Seeing how fragile life can be, and how easy it can be taken away… One would think that living so long would make a man see others as mayflies too, and yet for…_

At that exact moment, half a world away, the direct attack from Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon struck Edgar. The word Jalal was about to type was "some", but his finger slipped, and it turned out "son".

"What was THAT?" he said out loud, startled.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_Ow, my kidneys…_ thought Edgar.

**(E: 5,100) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: 6,900)**

"To end my turn…" said Yolanda.

One of her two face-down cards lifted up.

"From this point on, Lucky Chance will be in play. I'll be able to draw once whenever I correctly call the effect of one of my cards.

"Like I said, fellah, it's mine and I'm _not _letting anyone take it from me… _Ever. _It's your move…"

"What I'm wondering is why she thinks an artist would want to make her look like an alien," asked Maddie.

"Oh, uh, I've actually seen that a lot in modern fantasy art," said Clayton.

"Pardon?" asked Maddie.

"Well, see, modern artists don't actually paint while a live model poses these days," he said, continuing. "Not most of the time, anyway. They usually take photographs, then sketches, and then use them when doing the actual portrait.

"And I've seen that sort of thing _very _often, the artist will take the sketches of the model and incorporate her physical features into a painting of some mythical creature, like say a mermaid, succubus, dryad, vampire, anything he can picture that's attractive, exotic, and human-like… In fact…"

"He had a _very _good reason for it!" shouted Yolanda.

As she looked at him, her eyes were glowing like fire.

"He wanted to paint me the way I'd look if I were _his _species."

The three of them looked at her.

"The guy who painted it was an alien?" asked Edgar.

"That's right…" said Yolanda.

He looked at Clayton.

"Uh…" he said. "I assume you mean… The same ones in the alleged Roswell incident…"

She nodded. Maddie sighed.

"Want me to call the guys in the white coats, Edgar?" she asked.

"Maddie, you're not helping…" he said. "Yolanda, this is hard to believe…"

"I don't care whether you believe me or not," she said, "are you going to move or what?"

Edgar rubbed his eyes, and thought for a minute. Then he made a draw.

_Yolanda didn't use the World's effect again, nor did she summon a monster, _he thought. _Obviously, that means she has none she can summon at the moment, because if __she had sacrificed the Moon and the Token, there would have been no guarantee she could win on her next turn or have enough monsters do it again._

_She must want that painting pretty badly… She may _sound _crazy, but she's playing _very _carefully._

_Of course, she probably _will _win on her next turn unless I make this move count…_

"I summon the Hierophant of Shada," he said.

As he played the card, a five pointed star in a circle formed in midair, and an old man emerged, one with grey hair and a beard (no mustache) wearing a plain white toga with a grey sash, and an Egyptian-style headdress with a golden snake in the front. He held a small rod shaped like an ankh. (1,600 ATK)

"Wha?" said Yolanda. "What does he do?"

Maddie smirked.

"Well…" she said. "I sure know what he does, but… I think Edgar can explain it…"

"You'll find out soon," said Edgar.

The odd priest held the ankh higher, and there was a flash of magic, shattering the Moon Token.

"Now that I've done that," he said, "I'll use the Spell Card Attraffic Control."

A Continuous Spell rose behind the Hierophant, and lines of pure light shot across the center of the arena, crisscrossing like a laser security grid.

"Since I did that, you can't attack if you have three or more monsters."

"Talk about dumb," she said. "I only have _two _monsters."

"The Moon's effect, remember?" said Edgar, pointing to the huge apparatus. "Your turn…"

This time, Yolanda laughed as she drew a card.

"You should have read the text clearer, pops," she laughed, "I don't _have _to use that effect. Which means that old geezer is ancient history! Kill him!"

The World powered up its wave motion beam, and the old Spellcaster glared at it in anger…

Then, as the lethal ray started to strike, the Hierophant's eyes burned with dark flames, and he lifted the ankh. The beam of light was engulfed by an even stronger bolt of darkness, and both fell back on the evil Fairy, blowing it to atoms.

"WHAT?" shouted Yolanda.

She looked at the Hierophant, who was looking at her with a very angry expression. (4,000 ATK)

**(E: 5,100) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: 6,000)**

"You don't seem to have much respect for your elders, young lady…" said Edgar. "Hierophant of Shada is a card bearing the image of Siamun Muran, the vizier to the Pharaoh, the original holder of the Millennium Key, and most importantly, the only one able to control the powerful Seal that bound Exodia. In effect, Muran had Exodia's near-unstoppable might at his command.

"Now, due to his effect, because you attacked him while I had no other monsters, I was able to increase his score by 800 for every Normal Monster in my hand with the words 'Forbidden One' in its name. I have three."

He turned three cards in his hand around, the Right Arm, Right Leg, and Left Leg.

Yolanda's eyes burned a little. She lifted her finger with a low snarl, then she let out a heavy sigh as her other face-down card lifted up.

"I'm using the Spell Card Detour of Fate," she said, slowly. "Since my Arcana Force monster was destroyed, I can discard a card to bring the Empress back from the Graveyard…"

A magic circle covered with eldritch sigils appeared on the floor, and the female alien rose out of it as Yolanda discarded one of her cards. (1,300 ATK) The Empress' card appeared, and started to spin.

"This means I get to use the effect of my Lucky Chance card, by the way," she said. "I simply call heads or tails, and if the result of my monster's toss is the same, I get to draw once. Naturally, I call heads."

It started to spin a little quicker before landing right side up again. Yolanda made a draw.

"What a surprise," sighed Edgar.

"I summon Arcana Force IV – The Emperor!" she shouted.

Yet another robotic creature appeared, this one made of coal-black iron, in the shape of a devil with large, clawed hands, horns on a skull-like face, and metal wings. It had no legs, instead having another mass of tendrils. (1,400 ATK)

"Again, I call heads on my Lucky Chance," said Yolanda, sounding cheerful now, as the card appeared above the Emperor. "So round, and round, and round it goes, where will it stop? Who… Huh?"

To _everyone's _surprise, it stopped upside-down.

"You were saying?" said Maddie.

"Uh…" said Yolanda.

"I figured that lucky streak had to end soon…" added Clayton.

"You missed that toss," said Edgar, "so all three of your monsters lose 500 Attack Points."

(The Empress: 800 ATK, The Emperor: 900 ATK, The Moon: 2,300 ATK)

"I… uh… I end my turn…" said Yolanda.

"And that means the cost of using my Hierophant's effect now comes into play," said Edgar. "He goes to the Graveyard, but those three Forbidden One monsters… I summon them all in Attack Mode."

He flipped the three cards onto his Disk, and three rather disturbing items, two disembodied arms and a leg, each of them seemingly made of gold with shackles on the wrists and ankle, appeared. (200 ATK x3)

"And what are you going to, uh… _Do _with them?" asked Yolanda.

"I'll show you," he replied. "I draw one card…"

He drew, then put that aside.

"With these fragments of the Forbidden One, I open the Overlay Network!" he chanted, as a five-pointed star started to form on the ground and a vortex behind him. I call the avatar of pure power…"

The star burned, and the three pieces turned to smaller flames.

"Shadow Lord Exodia!"

A large being rose from the magical circle, one with a shiny, frictionless, metallic skin. It may have been possible at first glance to compare it to Exodia Necross or Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord, but rather than the skull-like face of the first, its face seemed younger and youthful, and its skin was a shiny, silver-like material, rather than rock. It didn't seem quite as hulking either, even though it was muscular. It carried a long crook in its right hand, a weapon-like version of the Pharaonic crook of Egypt. (1,800 ATK)

"A sterling silver Exodia?" asked Yolanda.

"No, electrum," said Edgar.

"What?" she asked.

"Uh, electrum," said Clayton, "It's an alloy of gold _and _silver. _Very _old coins used to be minted out of it rather than gold, because you see…"

"_Shut up!"_ shouted Yolanda.

"Shutting up now…" he said.

"Don't worry," said Maddie, "I think Edgar can have this finished soon."

"As if…" said Yolanda. "I can still use the Empress' effect to summon Arcana Force IX – The Hermit."

She played the card, and a column of light shot upwards from the right of the Moon… Then something weirder than _all _of the others looked like a long, inverted, three sided pyramid, an edge facing forward, with one eye on each face, and a mouth under each eye; a single arm was under each mouth, each one carrying a long staff, and under each _arm _were two long, spindly legs, six in all, which the thing was perched on. (1,900 ATK)

"Okay, this is… new…" said Edgar.

"You'd better believe it, buster," she said, as the card appeared over it. "The Emperor's effect may reduce his score for the moment, but people change, and so do monsters. This Hermit is powerful but risky… I'll call heads on Lucky Chance again…"

The card started to turn…

"…and upright on the Hermit, I'll be able to switch the effect of any other Arcana Force monster on the field to any position I want. Inverted, however, and _all _of them switch to inverted."

_That's a pretty big risk, _thought Maddie. _If the Moon's effect switches… Uh… Well, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be good for Yolanda…_

Everyone watched the card, Yolanda looking a little nervous… Then she held her chest with a look of relief as it stopped right side up. She drew one card, and then pointed to the Emperor. Its card appeared again, and then turned 180 degrees.

(The Empress: 1,800 ATK, The Emperor: 1,900 ATK, The Moon: 3,300 ATK, The Hermit: 2,400 ATK)

"I see…" said Edgar.

Shadow Lord Exodia pointed its crook at the Empress.

"What are you doing?" said Yolanda, nervously. "They'll… They'll kill each other!"

"I beg to differ!" replied Edgar. "You see, once per turn, if my monster is in a battle it normally wouldn't survive, it can get rid of an Overlay Unit, and gain 500 Attack Points…"

A powerful bolt of violet fire cascaded from the weapon, and a horrid scream came from the Empress as the divine flames seemed to burn it alive, literally. It collapsed in a pile of ashes.

(2,300 ATK)

"I'm ending my turn now," said Edgar. "However, if a turn ever ends when it has no Overlay Unit after I've spent them all using its effect, it's destroyed, but if that happens, I get to take _every _part of the actual Exodia that's there except the central piece from my Graveyard.

"So that means it's your turn…"

**(E: 5,100) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: 5,500)**

Yolanda made a draw, and then looked over what she had.

_That damn Attrafic Control… _she thought. _No matter what happens, I won't be able to get at him this round… But…_

Again, a new Token leapt out of the Moon's chamber. (0 ATK) Then it disappeared quickly.

"I'm sacrificing this to summon Arcane Force X – Fortune!" she shouted.

There was a loud droning buzz, and a thing seemingly _leapt _from above and landed in front of her. This was _hideous. _It was bent over double, and had a back with a bony ridge, but it had a face with four beady eyes and a long, sharp proboscis. It had _six _arms, and each held a weapon – or tool: a spear, bullwhip, sickle, shears, trident, and a crossbow. (2,000 ATK) –) 2,500 ATK

"Ugh…" said Edgar. "_That's _a wheel?"

"No, _this _is," said Yolanda.

She pointed up, and a wheel with the numbers one through six on it appeared in midair.

"The slightly different spelling sets this monster apart from the others because it's different," she said. "Each round, it could attack anything. Either player, directly, either player's Spell and Trap Cards, or the most powerful monster on either side of the field…"

"Uh…" said Edgar.

"In fact…" said Yolanda, with a small chuckle, "it could theoretically destroy itself if it had to, but let's see what happens…"

"Uh, hold it…" said Edgar.

Not bothering to stop, Yolanda grabbed hold of the edge of the wheel, and spun it hard, clockwise, causing it to spin around and around and around…

It slowly started to stop…

"FOUR?" she shouted.

"Four?" gasped Clayton. "What does four do?"

Fortune looked at the Moon next to it… Then it lifted its sickle, and swiped. The Moon quivered for a second, then fell into two pieces, sliced in half by a diagonal cut, before falling apart in a clatter and a pile of junk.

Edgar held his hand over his eyes and groaned.

_Don't laugh, _he thought, _it would be cruel…_

"Yolanda, please," he pleaded, "this is bordering on the absurd! You need help, and you're just going to hurt yourself!"

"I need help?" she shouted. "Are you calling me crazy?"

"Well, uh…" he said.

Truthfully, he _did _think she was crazy, but it was kind of hard to say so.

"Well, you're trying to convince me that you were a model for an alien who was into art," he said, "what do you expect me to think?"

"You don't believe aliens are real?" she asked.

Edgar stopped. Truthfully, it wasn't his skepticism over the possibility of intelligent life in on other planets that was the issue. The Primordial Titans were pretty solid proof that there was. What was farfetched was the idea of the government covering it up for so long for… Well, whatever mad reason they had, and managing to keep such information secret from the public for so long. And seriously, the thought of an alien coming her to _paint _was even more bizarre.

_Honestly, _he thought, _a guy flies a million light years from another galaxy, lands on this planet, and when he makes peaceful contact with an earthling, he asks to paint her portrait? That would be farfetched even for Ron Sterling. _

"It's your move," she said. "It's not over yet…"

"Suit yourself…" he replied, as he drew.

_Wiseman's Chalice… _he thought.

"Much as I appreciate the help," he said, "unintentional as it was…"

Shadow Lord Exodia pointed at Fortune, and its score went up to 2,800 as its crook absorbed another Unit.

"…attack with Punishing Darkflame!"

Again, the blast thundered across the courtyard, and a scream proceeded the creature collapsing in a pile of ashes.

**(E: 5,100) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: 5,200)**

"Next, I'll summon the Avatar of the Pot…" he said.

"Say what?" asked Yolanda.

There was a loud, throaty chuckle, and a tall statue of a muscular man made of green stone wearing a breechcloth with the Pot of Greed for a head appeared next to Exodia. (1,200 ATK)

"Huh?" said Yolanda. "Why in the world would you use that? It makes as much sense as putting Guardian Elma in your deck these days."

"Uh, someone is going to have to fill me in here…" said Clayton. "My knowledge of this game isn't as good as it is for the typical folk…"

"Guardian Elma is a card that requires another card to use, and that card is illegal," replied Maddie, "making Elma herself pretty much worthless. This guy also needs an illegal card to use its effect, Pot of Greed."

"And Spirit of the Pot of Greed does too," replied Edgar. "So does Jar Robber, actually… But with this Special Spell Card…"

He turned a card in his hand around.

"Those monsters gain some use through a clever loophole. It's called the Refurbished Pot of Greed, and while its first effect simply lets me draw once, it's _second _effect makes its name count as the actual Pot of Greed anywhere but in the deck."

A wash of green covered the odd jar, and it turned into the true Pot of Greed, chuckling evilly.

"That means this card can resonate with the Avatar's effect, and I can discard it to then draw three cards."

He fed the card into the side slot, then picked up three cards from his deck. One of them was the Left Leg, but…

_Damn, why is the Head always the one you need? _he thought.

"That's all for now…" he said.

Yolanda's hand shook a little as she drew. She glanced at the painting at her side again.

"I'll throw this down," she said, as a new set card appeared, "and then… uh… This card I'm about to use is risky… but it seems I have to… I sacrifice the Hermit…"

The odd creature disappeared.

"…and summon Arcana Force XI – Justice."

This one was something else that Edgar had never heard of Saiou using, and it seemed more human-like at first, female, wearing a slim, metal, armored top, shaped to fit a woman's torso, a long, white skirt, long, velvet gloves, with sharp fingers, and a china mask over the face with no features…

Then, looking at it again, it was clear that the armored dress was the whole creature; there was no body wearing it underneath. At least, no physical one. (2,100 ATK) –) (2,600 ATK)

It lifted its hands threateningly, and the card above started to turn. It had no eyes, but Edgar knew it was looking at him…

"All right, that's just plain wrong," said Clayton.

"What do you know lard-ass?" said Yolanda.

"WHAT?" he shouted. "Now you see here, now, missy…"

"It's not worth it…" said Maddie, holding her hand up.

"I call heads again," continued Yolanda, "and if it does come up heads, I destroy one monster, but if it's tails, then I lose _all _my monsters…

"And before you try to counter this, you can't. In fact, _neither _player can counter _either _of the effects."

She chuckled evilly as it did indeed come up inverted. Justice pulled a _very _large golden sword, seemingly out of nowhere, and cut downward, slicing Shadow Lord Exodia in two, creating a burnt scar. It teetered, then burst.

"I'm not done!" shouted the genasi.

The Emperor's metal tentacles reached for Avatar of the Pot, grabbing its four limbs, and then pulled at them spread-eagle. Clayton looked away, but Maddie could watch… Barely. The looked away right before it was torn apart.

"You…" said Edgar, coming _very _close to getting angry now.

"Burn!" shouted Yolanda.

He stood his ground as much as he could as Justice came at him with the sword. Still, some every man has his limits, and Edgar was no exception. As the thing cut him across the chest, he shouted in a furious mix of pain and anger.

Now Yolanda _and _her two monsters looked a little frightened…

"I, uh…" she said. "I play Sebek's Blessing…"

She used one of her Spell Cards, and briefly glowed with an aura of energy.

"That means I gain Life Points equal to the damage done by that attack, and I think I'll end my turn now…"

_**(E: 1,800) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: 7,800)**_

Edgar closed his eyes. Beads of sweat fell down his forehead. Then he opened them as he made a draw.

"Yolanda…" he said, looking up. "I had some sympathy for you at first, and I honestly wanted to cut you some slack. I saw you as confused and possibly unstable, and wanted to help…"

She was about to say something, but a stern look from Edgar made her stop.

"I haven't revoked my initial goal, but these insults, however, are getting out of hand… Trash talking is one thing, but insulting the poor man's weight? _That _is the most juvenile type of behavior and is inexcusable.

"I don't usually make moves this risky, but it seems I have little choice…"

He used a Spell Card, and a shimmering, phantom form of Frontier Wiseman appeared next to him, and a glowing, golden goblet appeared as he lifted his hands.

"I use the Spell Card Wiseman's Chalice," he said. "Because I have no monsters, I can Special Summon a monster from _your _Graveyard…"

The chalice started to overflow with colored liquid, and then poured on the ground… To Yolanda's shock, the monster that appeared was the Hermit. (1,900 ATK)

"You…" he said.

"I'm using the effect of this monster now…" he said. "You never said its effect couldn't be used on an opposing monster…"

"I can still use the effect of my Lucky Chance!" shouted Yolanda. "I choose… Heads…"

Maddie watched as the card spun.

_He made a risky move… _she thought. _No matter what happens, the side effect of Wiseman's Chalice means Edgar isn't allowed to Tribute the Hermit, and that it moves to Yolanda's side of the field at the end of his turn. Yolanda's move is kind of clever… She'll _need _the extra draw if it comes up heads. _

As they watched, the card turned, and stopped right side up.

"Good!" said Edgar, pumping his fist. "So I'll turn Justice from upright to inverted."

The dress-like thing and the Emperor exploded into shards that looked like flaming, sharp glass.

Yolanda moaned as she fumbled for her deck.

"I draw once…" she said.

Edgar wasted no time. He turned to the Hermit and nudged his head. It lifted its spears, and leapt, spinning as it did like a jumping jack. Then it hurled all three as it spun, sending them stabbing into Yolanda's chest and torso, causing her to fall on her rear with a loud sob.

**(E: 1,800) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: 5,900)**

"Yolanda!" he shouted.

She sat up, and the spires turned to dust. He looked at her carefully as she stood up… Then he played another card, causing a miniature version of Cyber Dragon to appear next to the Hermit. (0 ATK)

"I'm summoning Cyber Valley next," he said, "and then I'll use its second effect, and banish it along with the Hermit to draw twice more…"

He made two draws, then set one of them, causing it to appear in his Spell Zone.

"…and I'm done…"

He looked at her as she got up. This was hurting her a lot, and he didn't know just how much she knew it… Did she truly _believe _somehow that she had modeled for that painting?

She drew a card, and as she did so, her set two of the ones in her hand. Then, quickly, her Trap Card next to them flipped up.

"I'm activating my Beckoning Light Trap," she said. "I'll discard these…"

She threw her two cards – Divination of Fate, and Ace of Pentacles – into her Graveyard.

"…and then get back two of my Light-Attribute monsters."

Two cards – the Empress and… well, another card – came out of the slot. Then one of the Spell Card she had just set opened.

"First, I'll use Reverse Reborn," she said. "I can summon the Emperor from my Graveyard, but it automatically gets it inverted effect…"

The steel devil appeared, crossing its bulky arms. (1,400 DEF)

"Then I'll use this…"

Her second Spell Card opened up, revealing it to be Fiend's Sanctuary. A five-pointed star appeared on the floor, and a small, metal stickman rose from it. (0 ATK)

"I sacrifice both my monsters…" she said.

"Not _another _double sacrifice!" shouted Maddie.

"Oh yeah…" said Yolanda.

The ground started to tremble, and a hand reached out of the pavement…

"If you think this is scary, I don't blame you… I summon Arcane Force: XXVI – The Tower!"

The huge… well, monster that rose from the ground was like a tall, hulking slab of bulky stone in humanoid – well, almost-humanoid – form. It had a thick cylindrical torso atop three equally thick legs, and four muscular arms with large, muscular hands. Its head had a ridged, dome-shaped cranium, and one eye under a smaller ridge for a nose, and no mouth or ears.

Then the one eye opened. It was blood-red. (2,600 ATK)

"That's the worst one yet…" said Clayton, starting to sweat.

"I take it you don't mean creepy like Edward Gorey?" asked Maddie.

"No, Edward Gorey was okay as far as his medium went," replied the curator, "_this _crosses the line…"

"Yeah, well, the guy who invented this game was an artist himself," sighed Maddie, "but I'm not sure how much he was involved with these guys…"

Edgar was a little worried too… The Tower was almost _never_ good news in a tarot reading, and it didn't matter whether it came up upright or inverted. It came right after The Devil, and was the universal symbol of ruin and destruction. It could mean chaos, downfall, destruction, indecision, or doubt... The only time it could ever be positive, maybe, was when it appeared inverted in a reading with several cards, when it might counter an even _worse _prediction made earlier in the reading.

The Tower's one eye glowed, and _three _copies of its card appeared above it, and then started to spin.

"Three?" asked Edgar.

"As you heard," said Yolanda, "the difference in spelling means this one is different. Listen closely. When these three cards stop spinning, I add up the number of them that are right-side-up, then add one."

The cards stopped, and two were right-side-up, one was upside-down.

"Well, that's a four…" she said. "I'll explain that if I have to, but… This card can't be destroyed by card effects the turn it's summoned, so bye-bye!"

The brute lifted its right fist, and it thundered towards Edgar…

"Defense Draw activate!" he shouted.

His Trap lifted up, and a shield of force funneled out of it, holding the fist at bay.

"Phew!" he said, and made a draw.

_Finally… _he thought when he saw what it was.

"So you're safe, for now…" she said. "But not for long. See, that three I rolled is the number of End Phases before the Tower's own effect destroys itself."

"Come again?" asked Edgar.

"Consider this thing a Tower of Babel with legs," she said. "After four Standby Phases, yours and mine, it destroys itself, and the player whose turn that is when it happens takes 3,000 points of damage.

"Or that may happen sooner, if _you _destroy it outside of battle, but then I'm the one who takes damage.

"Get it?"

"Yeah, I got that…" said Edgar. "That card is an even crazier risk than the Hangman was."

"Yeah, well maybe I just like to take risks," she said.

"You sure you don't want to add Sowing of the Fool to your deck?" he asked.

"PUH-LEASE!" she shouted. "There's a difference between 'take risks' and 'act like Evel Knievel'!"

"Uh, touché," he said.

_It means that she has an edge here… _he thought. _ Four End Phases means it will destroy itself on _my _turn…_

"End turn…" said Yolanda, "so turn one ends now…"

She stabbed her thumb down, and Edgar drew.

_At least I can protect myself… _he thought.

"I'll use the Spell Card, Level Limit Area B," he said.

The Continuous Spell appeared, and the Tower made a creaking, groaning sound as it knelt. (2,600 DEF)

He played two more cards, and two set cards formed in front of him in two flashes.

_No monsters to defend me, _he thought, _one Continuous Spell keeping a huge thing at bay…_

He looked at his four remaining cards, Exodia's left leg, Exodia's central piece, Magical Stone Excavation, and Book of Taiyou.

…_only a hair's breadth from victory, but still distant… It's like I'm seeing this through the eyes of that lunatic Rare Hunter from Battle City, and in two turns, it may well end the same way!_

Yolanda didn't say anything as she drew a card. She only looked at him slightly, and then set it, then said, "That's the end of turn three…"

Edgar stopped.

He didn't know why… Maybe it was because of all her cards dealing with chance and tosses, but he suddenly remembered the line from that old country song… How did it go?

"_**Son, I've made a life… Out of reading people's faces… And knowing what their cards were… By the way they held their eyes…"**_

Edgar had been a Shadowchaser for a long time, and for someone whose life often _depended _on what cards his opponent used, literally, that was a "trick" he had picked up too, and given that she didn't summon the other card she had… He was almost sure the card she had set was Destruction Jammer.

Avoiding the Tower's blast at the end of his turn wasn't going to be easy…

He drew a card. It was The Beginning of the End… No help there, but…

_Wait… _he thought.

"I'm using Magical Stone Excavation," he said, as he played the card. "I'll get rid of these…"

He tossed two of his cards.

"Oh, by the way…" he said. "As of right now, all five of Exodia's components are in my Graveyard right now…"

"So?" asked Yolanda.

"Just keep note of that," he said. "Excavation's effect recover's Wiseman's Chalice…"

The Spell Card appeared again, and once again, Frontier Wiseman appeared. Again, the cup spilled… But this time, the monster that appeared… was Justice. (2,100 DEF)

"Wait… WAIT!" shouted Yolanda.

"I don't think this effect is optional, Yolanda," he said, as the card again started to turn. "And as you said yourself, it can't be countered…"

Everyone was watching it closely… Then it started to slow… Then, it nudged to the right-side-up position, and Maddie let out a small cheer. Justice drew its sword again, stood up briefly and cut through the much bigger Fairy. Yolanda screamed…

She screamed _loudly…_

**(E: 1,800) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: 2,900)**

"Made it with half a turn to spare..." said Edgar, with a gulp.

"Well, that should…" said Clayton.

"EDGAR!" yelled Maddie. "Yolanda…"

Edgar noticed it too, Yolanda was still screaming, and the reason was because the Tower was still there. Justice's sword had made a terrible scar on its chest, but now it had turned toward Yolanda with a look of fury…

Then it grabbed her in its right fist.

"But… but…" said Maddie. "She still has Life Points left, it… _It's trying to kill her!"_

"Stop it!" shouted Edgar.

He was about to run to Yolanda, but then, Justice lifted its sword, a silent warning telling him to yield.

Then its blank face turned to him. A voice came from the creature:

"_Finish it… Or we will…"_

"Uh…" thought Edgar. "Fine… If that's the only language you… things understand…"

He played the Beginning of the End card.

"I'll banish five of the nine Dark monsters in my Graveyard to draw three cards."

He took Shadow Lord Exodia, Spirit Reaper, Hierophant of Shada, Big Eye, and Exodia the Forbidden One, then put them aside as he drew three times.

_Please let me get what I need… _he thought. _Yes!_

"I set this monster," he said quickly, as he set the card, "then use Escape from the Dark Dimension to summon the head of Exodia to the field…"

One of his two Trap Cards lifted up, and a dark wormhole opened. Exodia's disembodied, severed head floated out of it. (1,000 ATK)

"Then, Book of Taiyou!" he shouted.

The set monster flipped up, revealing, of all things, a cute-looking penguin holding a sword. (750 ATK)

"I'll use Penguin Soldier's effect to reclaim itself and Exodia…"

The Penguin turned to a watery blob, and the head to an orb of shadow, both turned to cards, and both flew to his hand.

Yolanda screamed again, weaker this time. Edgar's other Trap lifted up.

"I have just enough cards left in my Graveyard to use Backup Soldier…" he said.

The Right Arm, Right Leg, and Left Leg flew out of his discard slot. Then he used one more Spell Card…

Monster Reincarnation. He discarded Penguin Soldier, and took the Left Arm…

The sky darkened, and flaming lines started to draw a pentagram in mid-air. The Tower stopped, then slowly turned towards Edgar…

Slowly, the giant form of Exodia the Forbidden One emerged from the portal, its arms and legs bound by shackles… Then the shackles broke, and it roared to the heavens…

"Exodia… _**OBLITERATE!"**_

Justice dove for cover, but broke into little shards, as the powerful bolt of divine flames blasted through the Tower. Infernal obscenities came from the thing's death throes as it was literally _eroded _by the blast…

**(E: 1,800) - - - - - - - - - - (Y: X)**

Yolanda was propelled backwards, but Exodia quickly reached an arm out, catching her before she fell and letting her down gently.

As it vanished, Edgar ran up to her and knelt beside. A quick check to the pulse on the neck confirmed that she was alive, but…

"Maddie, call an ambulance…" he said.

As Maddie dialed the nearest Shadow-compatible paramedics, Edgar knelt over her.

He noticed an odd pendant she was wearing. It resembled a mask, shaped like a shield, black on the left side, white on the right, the black side with a distorted smile, the white side with an equally distorted frown.

He gently undid the chain, then looked at it closer.

"Their coming, Edgar, they…" said Maddie. "What…"

"I think I know why she was having so much luck…" he said. "Three rules about gambling, Maddie. Never play craps with a guy who brings his own dice, never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a state…

"And never play _any _game of chance against someone with one of these."

He lifted the small pendant, and she was a little surprised.

"A Charm of Olidammara?" asked Maddie. "She was cheating?"

"Well, only if she was actually channeling the Laughing Rogue, and that seems unlikely," said Edgar. "Using ugly eldritch abominations really aren't his style…

"It's possible she was working for some cult that followed some dark aspect of Olidammara or something, but we might have to wait until she wakes up to find out…

"…whatever the case, she must have wanted that painting pretty badly…"

He looked at the _Space Angel _portrait and Yolanda's cards on the ground…

_This is bigger than simple art… _he thought. _Much bigger…_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**NECRO SACRIFICE (Spell Card)**

**Normal Spell**

**Image: **A grinning mouth above a forest with trees shaped like hands; in the center, a figure is inside a glowing sphere.

**Card Description: **Select 1 Level 5 or higher Monster in your hand that can be Normal Summoned. Take the Monster(s) from your Graveyard necessary for a Tribute Summon of the selected Monster, and Special Summon them to your opponent's side of the field in face-up position (your opponent decides the Battle Positions). During this turn, you may Normal Summon the selected Monster without Tributing

_Note: "Necro Sacrifice" was first used by Saiou in the "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" episode "Source of Strength"._

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**REVERSE REBORN (Spell Card)**

**Equip Spell**

**Image: **The face of Arcana Force VIII: The Strength on a background of grey and white shapes.

**Card Description: **Select 1 "Arcana Force" Monster in your Graveyard. Special Summon it to your side of the field in Attack Position and Equip it with this card. The Special Summoned Monster has its "Tails" effect applied. If this card is removed from the field, destroy the Equipped Monster.

_Note: "Reverse Reborn" was first used by Saiou in the "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" episode "The Phoenix Has Landed (Part 2)"._

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**MAGICIAN'S SCALES (Spell Card)**

**Normal Spell**

**Image: **Arcana Force I: The Magician producing crackling orbs of plasma from its hands.

**Card Description: **Tribute 1 "Arcana Force" monster you control. Add 1 Spell Card from your deck to your hand.

_Note: "Magician's Scales" was first used by Saiou in the "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" episode "Future Changes"._

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**HIEROPHANT OF SHADA (Monster Card)**

**Spellcaster/Dark/Lvl4/1,600/1,200**

**Effect:** If this card is attacked by an opposing monster, you may increase its ATK by 800 for every Lvl 1 "Forbidden One" monster in your hand. If you do, then during the Standby Phase of the turn, send this card to the Graveyard and Special Summon all "Forbidden One" monsters in your hand in Attack Position.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**SHADOW LORD EXODIA (Monster Card)**

**Spellcaster/Dark/Xyz/Rank1/1,800/0**

_3 Lvl 1 Normal monsters_

**Effect:** Cannot be Special Summoned except via Xyz Summon. If this card would be destroyed by battle, you may detach 1 Xyz Material to prevent it from being destroyed and increase its ATK by 500. If all of this card's Xyz Materials are detached via this effect, destroy this card during the Standby Phase of the turn, and then add up to 4 Lvl 1 Normal monsters to your hand from the Graveyard.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**REFURBISHED POT OF GREED (Spell Card)**

**Normal Spell**

**Image:** The Goblin of Greed holding up a hastily repaired Pot of Greed, mostly made from bits of the other Pots, including the Jar of Greed and Pot of Generosity. Several half-empty tubes of Krazy Glue are lying on the ground.

**Card Description:** Draw 1 card. This card's name is treated as 'Pot of Greed' while in the controller's hand or when activated.

"_Refurbished Pot of Greed" was designed by Metal Overlord 2.0. Credit goes to him._

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**DETOUR OF FATE (Spell Card)**

**Quickplay Spell**

**Image:** A surrealist picture of a bald man in a suit, derby hat, and a cane, from behind, on a road floating in a void, a sun with a face to his left, a moon with a face to his right, and the Northern cross ahead. The path ahead of him forks.

**Card Description: **Activate by discarding 1 card from your hand when an "Arcana Force" monster you control is destroyed by battle. Special Summon an "Arcana Force" monster from your Graveyard with a lower Level than the destroyed monster. It cannot attack this turn.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**ARCANE FORCE XVI – THE TOWER (Monster Card)**

**Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl7/2,600ATK/2,600DEF**

**Effect: **Cannot be Special Summoned. This card cannot be destroyed by Spell, Trap, or Monster Card effects the turn it is summoned. When this card is Normal Summoned, flip a coin 3 times; add 2 to the number of Heads results, and take note of the sum. Destroy this card after a number of End Phases (counting yours and your opponent's) pass equal to the sum. If this card is destroyed via a Spell Card, Trap Card, or monster effect, other than its own effect, the opponent of the player who activated the effect that destroyed it takes 3,000 points of damage. If this card is destroyed by its own effect, the turn player takes 3,000 points of damage.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**ARCANE FORCE X – FORTUNE (Monster Card)**

**Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl5/2,000ATK/2,000DEF**

**Effect: **Cannot be Special Summoned. During each of your turns, roll 1 die, and apply 1 of the following effects depending on the result:

1: You take damage equal to this card's ATK.

2. Destroy all Spell and Trap Cards you control.

3. Destroy the face-up monster you control with the highest ATK.

4. Destroy the face-up monster your opponent controls with the highest ATK.

5. Destroy all Spell and Trap Cards your opponent controls.

6. This card may attack directly this turn.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**ARCANA FORCE XI – JUSTICE (Monster Card)**

**Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl6/2,100ATK/2,100DEF**

**Effect: **When this card is Summoned, toss a coin: Heads: Destroy one face-up monster controlled by your opponent. Tails: Destroy all of your monsters. The effects of this card cannot be countered or negated.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**ARCANA FORCE IX – THE HERMIT (Monster Card)**

**Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl5/1,900ATK/1,900DEF**

**Effect: **When this card is Summoned, toss a coin: Heads: Select 1 face-up "Arcana Force" monster except this one; that monster's effect is now treated as the opposite coin toss result. Tails: All "Arcana Force" monsters you control are treated as having their Tails effects.

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_**Jemorille: Any criminal psychologist who specialized in art thefts would have called Yolanda's attempt even worse than that of an amateur. She had tried to lift a painting in broad daylight, with in a crowded museum during business hours, and with no escape plan. Clearly, her chances of escaping with it were close to zero.**_

_**And the excuse she gave was farfetched, even when heard by a man with an open mind like Edgar. He would have dismissed it as the ranting of a lunatic… But her cards were rare as it was, and at least two of them seemed to be tainted with a dark curse that made them as dangerous to her as it was for any who dueled her.**_

_**For now, we aren't**__**ready to leave Roswell. Next chapter, a new page is added to this already deepening mystery, possibly with a new clue.**_

_**Hopefully. After all, nobody seems to have much right now. "Big Shot" is next. **_

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_Author's note:_

_Starting next chapter, an old feature will be back, with a new twist. The Shadowchaser Files will be returning, but they will not just profile characters._

_This time around, the Files will come in categories:_

_Personalities: Much like before, unique characters of the franchise._

_Races: Whole species of Shadowkind unlike any you have ever seen._

_Organizations: Groups with Shadow-related organizations and memberships, both benign and malignant._

_Artifacts: Magical and technological devices with eldritch – and often forbidden – powers._

_Locations: Mystical, mysterious, and often dreaded locations where strange things are bound to happen. _

_It's all coming soon._


	4. Big Shot

_**If the JFK assassination is the most widely-spread conspiracy theory in America, the 9/11 terrorist attacks are a close second. There are almost as many theories about that as there are about Israel (and the two aren't always mutually exclusive sadly). This would take too long to explain in one entry, so I'll explain the "how" in this one and the "why" later.**_

"_**Truthers" as they're called, often claim – to give a very abridged version – that the Twin Towers were not destroyed by a collision with hijacked airliners, but done so by explosives planted in the buildings themselves, along with thermite charges in their support beams. In most stories, the evil organization behind it **__**broke in the night before, cracked open the walls, planted the explosives, **_**rebuilt **_**the walls, and then covered their tracks well enough to avoid being seen, all in a single night. The planes, meanwhile, were remote controlled. **_

_**Now, Truthers also claim the Pentagon, the other target, was hit by a cruise missile, not an airliner. They point to the lack of debris at the crash site and say that the hole made in the side of the building was too small to have been made by an airplane. **_

_**It seems unlikely that any group of saboteurs could pull this off (and actually, the hole was **_**exactly **_**the right size), but they think it makes more sense that two planes being strong enough to knock two skyscrapers down.**_

_**In short, that's the only "proof" Truthers have, that the reported cause of 9/11 is impossible because a skyscraper would not have collapsed if hit by an airliner; they believe such a huge structure of steel and concrete could have withstood it. These people are scientifically ignorant and know very little about engineering and architecture, or they site "evidence" or the "sabotage" that does not exist. **_

_**Here's the **_**actual **_**truth, as far as scientific fact is concerned. First, fire softens steel asymmetrically, which causes the beams to buckle and bend, dramatically reducing structural integrity as a result. In fact, a sufficiently large fire would actually cause **__**less**__** buckling, which would make it less likely for the Tower to collapse had the fire actually been larger. Two, this is the first and only time a steel skyscraper has been allowed to burn internally for that long without **__**any**__** water or, indeed, any attempt to control the fire whatsoever. The water pressure to the area had been cut off due to the actual damage to the buildings, preventing the internal sprinklers from mitigating heat build-up on the inside of the building and preventing fire-fighters from fighting the fire. **_

_**Still… They won't admit they were wrong. The reason is, they believe the plot of deception that they accused the government of had evil motives, which I'll get to in my next entry.**_

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**CHAPTER THREE**

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**Big Shot**

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It was five PM, Mountain Time. The dinner hour was just starting in Lucky's Burger and Brew, a popular restaurant in Roswell.

Most restaurants had a strict "no dogs allowed" policy. This place, where the décor was obviously designed by a dog-lover, encouraged you to bring such pets. Not only would they let Man's Best Friend in with you, they'd feed him.

Of course, the place did sell human-food, and it had some rather well known entrees among the standard burgers, fries, and hot wings. The fried pickles were a big draw, along with the specialty burgers, such as the Russian Wolf Hound (sauerkraut, melted Swiss, and Thousand Island) the Poodle Chaser (melted brie, caramelized onions and Dijon mustard), and the very popular Undertaker (Applewood smoked bacon, two slices of American cheese, a fried egg, fried onion straws, and mayonnaise; it was probably best to skip lunch if you wanted to order one).

Still, it was hard for Edgar and Maddie to concentrate. They had moved Yolanda to the hospital wing at Shadowchaser Headquarters, but a call to them a half-hour ago didn't report anything new. She was still unconscious.

Edgar nonchalantly read through the menu slowly.

"They must buy their napkins in bulk here…" he muttered. "I didn't even know there _were _this many kinds of hollandaise sauce…"

"So… You don't suppose there was an off-chance she was telling the truth?" asked Maddie. "I mean, who knows? With all the stuff we've seen, maybe Little Grey Aliens _have _come here."

"I'm certainly not a skeptic, Maddie," said Edgar, as he put the menu down. "I've seen goblins, dark elves, death priestesses, zombies… I've seen dark elf death priestesses commanding mobs of goblin zombies, even…

"I've fought an erinyes temptress from Hell, outwitted another, and I think I might have _dated _another… Fought in the Hall of the Vanquished both as a prisoner of the place and a second time because I was invited…

"Basically, I've seen pretty much everything Shadowkind has to offer, and while I admit I'm open minded, I've _never _seen any Little Alien Greys."

"You told me once that _your _mentor, the Shadowkind wildlife expert, said the very idea of a lycanthrope who turned into an animal that wasn't at least partially carnivorous was absurd," said Maddie, with a mischievous smirk. "There was the case of that were-gorilla they found in Niger…"

"Okay, point taken…" sighed Edgar, "although that guy was special, he was… under a rather odd ancestral curse. The point is, Maddie, the Shadowchasers just don't have anything on file about Little Aliens Greys. And think about it… If aliens were going to come to Earth and talk to a human, why would they choose someone like Yolanda and ask, of all things, to paint her portrait?"

"Yeah, I see what you mean…" sighed Maddie. "Not exactly the purpose of an interplanetary mission. You know, my brother once told me that if aliens _had _visited us, the reason they've never revealed themselves might be because they have one of those… What's it called? They had one on _Star Trek…"_

"Prime directive?" asked Edgar. "Well, if that's the case, they're _much _better at following it than they were on the show, that's for sure."

They laughed for a minute, and then they were cut off…

"_**Edgar McDonald!"**_ shouted a voice.

Edgar and Maddie stood up as the front door to the restaurant was literally _kicked _open. Everyone stood up, as a muscular young man who was about Maddie's age stormed in.

This was hard to believe. He was another fire genasi, with the same bronze skin and fiery hair. He had strong Latino features, and was wearing a pair of jeans and a tank top that suggested he had been exercising. Heavily, from the look of it, and a duffle bag slung over his shoulder with the Nike insignia supported it further.

_What it the… _thought Edgar.

"Ramón, I told you _never _to come in here again!" said a waitress at the door.

"And like I told you, Flo," he replied, "I don't _give _a damn."

Then she shrieked as he made a backhand slap, knocking her aside, and then stormed towards Edgar. However, Edgar was more than ready for him.

"Stop right there, fellah," he said, "or you're going to find out what happens when you try that to someone who hits back."

"Where's my mother, you freak?" threatened the genasi.

He had been exercising, all right. And he hadn't showered before coming here, if the odor about him was any indication.

"Lower your voice!" demanded Edgar. "If you mean Yolanda, I think she would benefit more at this point if you looked into finding a lawyer. And maybe a psychiatrist too, she's kind of…"

"Crazy?" he interrupted. "You want to step a little closer and say that?"

Edgar shook her head as he covered his eyes with his hand. He realized everyone in the place was watching, and he knew that the guy probably wouldn't like it if he took him up on that…

"Come on, big guy, think you're tough?" asked the younger man. "I should warn you, I was able to knock out a hill giant once…"

"_Please!" _laughed Maddie. "I've seen Edgar knock out a _fire _giant."

The guy stopped. He looked at Edgar.

"Uh… In all honesty, he _was _pretty drunk at the time…" said Edgar.

"I'm not asking you two," said the genasi, slowly backing up. "Mom and I are very close, and one way or another…"

He looked to his side, where a woman was holding a small and very frightened corgi.

Then he grabbed the dog and shoved her as she screamed.

"HEY!" shouted Edgar.

The genasi lifted his free hand. The dog yelped as a fireball formed in his palm.

"Why don't we take this outside, big guy?" said the genasi.

"Okay, _this _is _way _past the fine line!" shouted Maddie. "You want to fight, mister, uh… Ramón, was it? I'm game…"

She lifted her fists.

"Please, I don't fight girls…" he said.

Maddie laughed a little at this.

"Oh, chivalry, huh?" she asked. "You've already hit a lady _twice _in the past ten minutes, and it seems that you have no problem hurting defenseless animals either."

Meanwhile, Edgar was helping the waitress stand up.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'll be fine…" she said. "Maybe we should call the…"

Edgar opened his coat slightly, flashing a badge-like object as he did.

"We can handle it…" he said. "Just calm down…"

It wasn't an actual badge, but one with a weak enchantment that usually satisfied any Mundanes who wanted to see one. They had already called in a favor after the incident at the museum, and the last thing they wanted to do now was cause a scene and need another one.

Meanwhile, Maddie was, indeed, handling it.

"_And _you only took that hostage when I told you that the giant Edgar knocked out trumped yours in terms of strength. Why don't you tell everyone here the truth? You only have a problem hitting girls if you're sure they can hit _back_ and make a fool out you."

Ramón stopped and looked around at everyone. Maddie looked at the duffle bag.

"You got one of these in there?" she asked, pointing to her Duel Disk. "Why don't I meet you halfway and you let the poor dog go?"

"Why?" asked Ramón.

"Well, first of all," said Edgar, "trespassing, since you refused to leave when you were told to by the restaurant staff, then assault and battery, cruelty to animals, and well, I'm not exactly sure how to define charging into a restaurant and threatening everyone in it, but I'm sure it's a crime. Right now, I'm _very _close to giving you what you came in here to get, in which case you'll be in _much _more trouble than your mom is…"

Ramón stopped for a minute. Edgar looked at him hard.

"You came here because you wanted to defend her honor, right?" he asked. "Didn't she teach you anything when you were growing up?"

Ramón slowly put the dog down, and it ran to its master with a frightened bark. Then he unzipped the duffel bag, and took two steps backwards.

"Very well…" he said.

Everyone stepped away as Maddie turned towards him. The D-Gazers activated, forming the VR link, and they drew.

**(Maddie: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Ramón: 8,000)**

"You sure you want to do this, kid?" he asked.

"I'm twenty-four years old!" shouted Maddie. "Now are you gonna move, or do you want an engraved invitation!"

Ramón drew a card, and as he played one, a sound of a bell came over the restaurant like that of a…

…_boxing bell? _thought Maddie.

Then she turned and saw the monster he had summoned, which was indeed, a boxer. A hulking one, about six-foot-four, with green skin, white shorts, and black gloves. He wore a full-face mask (she assumed) made of black material with red eyes and a white bridge where the mouth and nose would be. (2,000 ATK)

"So, what do you think of Battlin' Boxer Glassjaw?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm… Sure there was absolutely _no _reason his name is 'Glassjaw'," said Maddie.

Truthfully, while she knew what it meant when a boxer has a glass jaw (it meant he couldn't take it, even if he could dish it out, more or less) she was more nervous about this guy _and _Ramón than she was letting on.

"I have one Battlin' Boxer on the field," said Ramón, and while boxing isn't exactly a team sport, you can't spar by yourself, so I can Special Summon Battlin' Boxer Sparrer."

There was a loud grunt, and another boxer appeared, smaller than Glassjaw, wearing a silver, padded suit, a helmet that covered his entire face that was vaguely cubical and made of some sort of plastic, yellow gloves, and red forearm pads. (1,200 ATK)

"Your move…" he said, smugly.

"So who is this guy?" asked Edgar, turning to the waitress.

"Well… he and his mother moved here two years ago," said the waitress. "For about a year they were no problem… She was just a massage therapist and he… he was an instructor at the gym. He was actually coaching pee-wee football, for heaven's sake!

"Then… Something with them changed… Something _really _weird."

Maddie drew her sixth card, and then her hand hovered over them for a minute before she picked one.

"I use the Spell Card, Take Over Five," she said, as she played it. "I'll send the top three cards from my deck to the grave…"

She discarded the cards – Skull Servant, The Tricky, Mokey-Mokey, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Stray Lambs. Then she took two more of her cards.

"I'll set some more cards," she said, placing them, causing one reversed card to appear in her Spell Zone and one behind it. "…and then it's your move…"

"Watch this, people!" laughed Ramón. "This is the good part! First I draw…"

He pulled a card from his deck.

"Then Sparrer attacks! Get it!"

The boxer shifted his feet, then made a right hook towards the set card. A young woman in a pink dress and… a _bonnet _with blonde hair in ringlets shrieked before the blow hit her and she shattered.

"Well that was unusual…" he said. "Eh… Now to show you how a jab works! Glassjaw, attack directly!"

What happened was hard to watch. The punch from the Warrior that hit Maddie directly in the midriff was so fierce that almost everyone watching it (those who were, a few forced themselves to look away) had the breath drawn from their mouths, and some could actually _feel _part of the strike. The woman holding the dog Maddie had saved let out a small squeak as she watched with complete horror…

The only one who was unfazed was Edgar, who was watching with his arms crossed over his chest…

**(M: 6,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 8,000)**

The whole restaurant was in complete silence. Maddie was bent over double, holding her stomach with her free hand…

"How's _that?" _laughed Ramón. "Your move, princess…"

Then a Spell Card on her side of the field appeared out of nowhere as Maddie slowly looked up, with perspiration pouring down her forehead…

"What? Scapegoat?" shouted Ramón.

Four puffy, cute sheep floated out of the card, orange, blue, pink, and red. (0 DEF x4)

"How…" he said.

"Remember that monster I had?" she asked. "You activated Pink Shepard's flip effect, but it doesn't come into play until now… I was able to take a Scapegoat from my deck and activate it at the End Phase…"

She coughed a little, and then discarded the Spell.

"Something screwy is going on," he said, "but… You can go…"

"Oh, I will…" said Maddie.

She stood up straight, held her stomach for a minute, and then drew a card.

"First, I'll use the effect of Take Over Five, and banish it to draw a second time…"

She drew once; then, the other set card stood on end, then turned 180.

"I'm using the Nightmare Archfiends Trap Card," she said. "I'll sacrifice one small Token, then send three _big _ones to _your _side of the field."

"Say what?" he asked.

One Sheep Token disappeared in a rainbow orb of colors, and then three gaunt, skeletal ghosts with long claws and long, white hair resembling fright wigs flew out of the card with loud cackles. Then flew around Ramón and his two pugilists, one of them laughing horribly in his face before positioning themselves beside the Battlin' Boxers. (2,000 ATK x3)

"What's the point?" he asked.

"This," replied Maddie. "I summon Parasitic Ticky."

She played a new card, and a tall, thin, and a… rather disgusting-looking cross between a tick and a human, appeared, with a quarrel full of iron spears on its back.

"I tell ya, babe, you are _much _better looking than your monsters…" he said. "A tick? Not sure he'd be very welcome in a place like this…"

Maddie looked at him. Then she "got" the joke quickly.

_Yeah, right… _she thought. _Dogs wouldn't exactly be fans, I suppose… _

"This monster's Attack Score is 500 times the number of Tokens on the field," she said. "There are six of them, so…"

(3,000 ATK)

"Let see how tough Glassjaw really is! Gouging Hell Siphon!"

The large insect hurled the javelin it was holding, trailing a strand of fibrous material behind it and impaling Glassjaw through the chest. He fell backwards, shattering when he was halfway to the floor.

**(M: 6,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 8,000)**

"She's certainly… exuberant," said the waitress.

"She always is," replied Edgar.

_Still, _he thought, _if there's one thing that motivates her, it would be people like this… _

He looked over at the corgi. It was still whimpering softly as its owner was petting it softly.

_Some people think that picking on smaller, weaker creatures impresses people. Well, they don't get respect that way. It might make them _feared _for a while, but it also makes them hated. And as soon as someone stands up to this sort of person and knocks him down, the attitude towards them goes from fear and hatred to _disgust _and hatred, as folks wonder just why they were so scared. _

"Well, now you know why he's called Glassjaw," said Ramon. "He may have 2,000 Attack Points, but if he's attacked by a monster with even _one_ Attack Point, he hits the mat. Fortunately, neither player takes any damage when that happens, so my Life Points are untouched."

"I'm setting one more card face-down…" said Maddie.

The two set cards formed behind the three Sheep.

"And then… I'm moving these three guys to Attack Mode…"

The three Sheep woke up, opening their eyes. (0 ATK x3)

"Your move, handsome…" said Maddie, smiling sweetly.

"I… see…" said Ramón.

He drew a card, then covered the lower part of his face with his cards.

_Sure, sure, couldn't possibly be leading me into something right? _he thought.

He looked at the three Nightmare Archfiends, and then shook his head. He had a Rank 6 monster he was dying to try…

_If I could use them to summon it, I could pound her into the ground so hard they'd have to use the Jaws of Life to pick her up, _he thought. _But I can't Xyz summon using tokens… Uh…_

"I'm moving my monsters to Defense Mode, beautiful," he said.

Sparrer lifted his gloves in a parrying stance (1,400 DEF) and the three Fiends curled up into sitting positions. (2,000 DEF)

"Then I'll just set a monster and end," he continued, as a reversed monster appeared. "How dumb do you think I am?"

"I really don't think you want me to answer that question…" replied Maddie.

She drew, then tapped three spaces on her Disk, causing the three Sheep to retreat back into Defense Mode. The Ticky threw the javelin again, skewering Sparrer.

"Look, seriously, Ramón, I get that you're trying to stand up for your mother, but… Understand, she's…"

"What, insane?" he asked, interrupting. "She's a loon? A nutcase? A fruitcake? Basket case? Whack job?"

"Uh, one way to put it…" replied Maddie.

He clenched his fist and looked away.

"I get that a lot…" he said, somberly. "Ever since her and my dad, well… He and I, uhm…"

Maddie looked at him closely. Did she hit a nerve?

"I take it they aren't married?" she asked.

"Their relationship was…" he muttered. "Uhm… Complicated…"

"It turned bad?" asked Maddie, her voice calming a little. "He cheated on her? Left you two? Is he some sort of deadbeat? Was it all some one-night stand?"

"Well, sort," replied Ramón. "I guess technically, he kidnapped her…"

"Huh?" said Maddie, in surprise.

"…and he didn't visit as often as we would have liked…" he added. "A couple years ago, he stopped altogether…"

As strange as the first comment was, the second was even stranger. Maddie had heard about Stockholm syndrome before, how a kidnap victim befriended or even fell in love with her abductor… But… it wasn't as common as some would believe.

"Uh… I'm just gonna set this and end…" said Maddie, quickly, rather anxious to change the subject now.

She flipped a card into her Disk, and a new card appeared in her Spell Zone.

"You know…" said the waitress, "come to think of it, he never mentioned his father at all… It's just something that's never come up…"

"Any time you want to call this off and talk about it, that's fine with…" started Maddie.

"Ah, cram it!" he shouted as he made a draw.

"I've always felt that actions speak louder than words! I'll summon Battlin' Boxer Headgeared!"

The boxer that appeared this time looked a lot grimmer, with metallic, grey skin, red gloves and boots, black trouser which appeared metallic, and as his name suggested, a red, padded boxing headgear. (1,000 ATK)

"I can use him to send a Battlin' Boxer from my deck to my Graveyard… like Battlin' Boxer Counterpunch here…"

He took the card and ditched it, as Maddie watched suspiciously.

"I'll move these guys to Attack Mode too…" he said, as the Archfiend Tokens leapt to their feet and bore their claws. "Then they'll attack those Sheep. Chow time!"

The three demons hissed, and flew across the field, tearing their claws into the three Sheep Tokens and tearing them apart.

_I don't get it… _thought Maddie.

She looked at Ticky, which had been reduced to a Score of 1,500 with those Tokens gone.

_How does he plan to…_

"Headgeared, wallop that tick!" shouted Ramón, as the pugilist put up his dukes, "and with Counterpunch in my Graveyard, I can banish him to give this punch some extra kick!

"Uh, not literally, of course… That would be an intentional foul…"

Headgeared snarled, and made a charging jab at the Insect, socking it on the jaw as his Attack Score rose to 2,000…

"I'll give it more kick yet," he said, "with the Spell Card, Flaming Knockout!"

Ticky staggered under Headgeared's left, but his _right _was even worse. The fiery punch blew it to residue, and Maddie felt it, hard…

**(M: 4,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 8,000)**

_Ow… _she said, holding her jaw.

"Well, at least you've lasted longer than McNeely did against Tyson, so I guess that's something," he said.

"What…" started the waitress.

"You'd be too young to remember…" sighed Edgar.

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Several hundred miles to the north and east, in Montreal, it was _bitter _cold. A lone female figure in a handmade wool coat hurried down Saint Jacques Street towards her destination. She pulled back her hood when she got there, revealing a lovely face with pointed ears, much like Philips, only more pronounced. She was a _full _elf. And she felt _very _out of place.

Red Feather sighed as she walked into the old restaurant. She didn't like eating in public, or even spending time in large cities at all. Nor did she like being around other people in general. Folks who knew about her technophobic reputation thought she didn't know how much had been written about her online… And how many "deviations" were done in her "honor" on deviantART.

Well, other Shadowchasers knew about them all, and sometimes, even second-hand descriptions told too much.

Still, she _was _beautiful, even if she was turned off by the fanboys with their silly fantasies. Her silky, raven hair and wild-looking hazel eyes stood out against her woven tunic decorated with a multitude of feathers.

She had almost regretted accepting this invitation… Their last meeting had nearly led them both to a horrid doom…

"Over here!"

Red Feather turned and saw Penelope standing by a table in the corner, waving and smiling sweetly.

"Sorry I was late," said Red, softly, walking to the table, which had been strategically located in the far corner of the place. A smell of hot tea with sarsaparilla and specially cultivated elven mint herbs came from a teapot at the side.

"It's okay," said the half-elf. She poured the tea and the delicious smell became stronger.

"It's not like I had anything better to do. Ike can probably cover if an emergency comes up. I just wanted to talk. It's been a while since we worked together…"

"Worked together?" asked Red, with a small grin. "You say that as if we had a choice. But… I guess that _was _probably the first time I ever actually worked with a partner. I guess you've been thinking there's a lot you don't know about Red Feather…"

"Uh, to be honest, Red…" answered Penelope, "I don't know _anything _about you."

"Oh…" said Red.

She sipped her tea slowly.

"Well, where to start…"

They looked at each other for a tense few minutes.

"Red, uh…" asked Penelope. "What is it like? To suddenly find yourself on Earth, being pulled here by… Whatever does it?"

Red took little sips and then looked into the cup for a few seconds.

"You never asked your dad?" she asked.

"He just said that it's 'hard to describe'," replied Penelope.

Red put the cup down, nodding.

"Imagine…" she said. "You're waking up with words in your head that you don't recognize. You talk and you don't understand your own words. Eventually, they become clear, and you understand them… but the real surprise comes when you look in a mirror…"

She motioned to her pointed elf-ears.

"…when you notice you aren't the same as everyone else, and it's a shock. It takes a while for you to realize what you are and what happened. In my case, all I could do was hide in a corner and cry like a little girl until someone realized I had 'just come through', so to speak, and offered to help."

Penelope nodded.

"Jalal once mentioned a rather despicable Turkish noble in the 15th Century," she said slowly. "He realized how confused new arrivals were, and organized a squad of soldiers to hunt for them.

"Turned out to be a _pretty _bad idea, actually. When his Shadowkind slave market was discovered, _every single _Shadowkind clan in the Ottoman Empire was ready to call a truce and more than willing to burn Constantinople to the ground to get him if they had to. That was one of the few times elves and orcs ever agreed on anything. And you don't even _want _to know what happened to this guy when the sultan found out.

"But since then, Jalal has made sure that anyone who tries something like that again will regret it.

"Still… It can be hard to think about a Shadowkind émigré, and what might go through his or her head. They never know just what they left behind back in the Homeworld of Shadow. They never know if they had loved ones back home… Wondering what happened, wondering if…"

"No-one is mourning for me, Penelope," said Red with a sigh.

Penelope looked at her.

"Trust me," said Red, "if someone, somewhere was crying over a lost daughter, or sister, or betrothed, and it was me… I'd know about it. I'd feel it in my gut."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Ugh…" said Maddie.

"And… Yoink!" laughed Ramón.

He punctuated the remark with two cards in his Disk, which appeared behind his monsters.

"Turn over…" he chortled, "so Counterpunch's effect is over too, so I guess this is the end of round one…"

The bell dinged again, and Headgeared relaxed a little. (1,000 ATK)

_Okay, here we go… _thought Maddie.

She drew, and the bell rang again. Headgeared put his dukes up again, but then, one of her Trap Cards lifted up.

"I'm using the Remove Brainwashing card," she said, "and that means I get to take those three Tokens back!"

"HUH?" said Ramón.

He shuddered a little as the three Fiends flew back to his opponent's side of the field, then looked at him and giggled.

"The workout's over," said Maddie, who was smiling even less pleasantly.

The other Trap lifted.

"This is called Token Stampede, and its effect is rather… Dramatic…"

(3,000 ATK x3)

"_Three _monsters with 3,000 Attack Points?" he shouted.

"AND they can't be destroyed in battle," she replied. "So let's see him bob and weave past _this!"_

The first Archfiend flew at Headgeared with a scream. The Boxer did raise his hands in a defensive block, and Ramón's Quickplay Spell lifted up.

"I use Burial from a Different Dimension!" he screamed. "I'll send Counterpunch back to my Graveyard, so I can banish him a second time!"

He fumbled with the card, but managed to discard it, and then Headgeared rose to an Attack Score of 2,000, grunting loudly as the first Fiend slammed into him.

He was intact, but breathing _very _hard.

"And Headgeared's own effect prevents him from being destroyed once a turn…"

"Then I doubt he can block _this _one," replied Maddie.

The second Fiend flew at the Boxer, smashing thought him like broken china. Finally, the third Archfiend slammed into Ramón's chest, knocking him on his back.

"He's down for the count!" said Maddie.

Indeed, that seemed the case. As the Nightmare Archfiend backed off, a ghostly looking man wearing a referee outfit appeared next to Ramón and started counting off.

"One… two… three…" he said.

"GAH!" said Ramón.

He bounced up, and the ref vanished.

**(M: 4,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 3,000)**

"I'm not done yet…" he said.

"Then by all means…" said Maddie.

_I'm getting a little tired of this… _he thought, as he made his draw. _She wants to play rough, huh?_

"I'm using the Dark Designator Spell Card!" he shouted.

_Oh boy… _thought Maddie. _This is always death…_

"Uh, isn't that the card that…" said the waitress.

"Yeah, it forces your opponent to take a card from his deck of the user's choice," replied Edgar. "But there's always a catch to it."

"I'm going to play it safe and name Parasitic Ticky, assuming you have a second one," he continued.

"Uh, yeah…" she replied. "But…"

She found the card in her deck, and took it.

"Now I activate… Insightful Card of Reversal!" he shouted.

His Trap Card flipped up.

"Ever hear of it?"

_I have… _thought Edgar. _It's the sort of card I'd expect someone like Jack Atlas to have… Not a guy like this… But then… The cards his mother had… They sort of came as a surprise too…_

"Since you just took a card from your deck in a way other than drawing," continued Ramón, "I get to draw one for each card you have…"

"WHAT the…" said Maddie. "Right, like this is fair…"

"Yeah, well, as you'll see…" he said.

He paused to draw four cards.

"…I've been doing it the fair way up to now… Time to start playing the way _other _boxers do. I use One Day of Peace."

He used the card, and it flashed in front of him as a bell rang. A young, blonde, busty woman in a bikini strode into the center of them, holding a sign with the number "3" above her head with a big smile. A dog barked from the tables behind them.

"Okay, Jill, okay," chuckled Ramón, as she walked away. "We each draw once, but no-one takes any damage this turn…"

_This is the craziest duel I've had in years… _thought Maddie, making a draw.

"No more undercards!" he shouted. "Time to bring out the champion! Here comes Battlin' Boxer Switchitter!"

This one had the same emotionless expression as the others, and was wearing a brown sweatshirt with a grey hood over a brown wool cap, blue shorts, and white boxing gloves. (1,500 ATK)

"And before you ask, _no _I'm not talking about him."

The Boxer shifted his right leg forward, and then lifted his right fist while shielding with the left.

"That's called the orthodox stance, but being a switch-hitter, he can shift to southpaw stance on a dime…"

The Warrior shifted quickly his position, switching his left foot with his right and doing the same with his fists.

"…as you can see."

"And?" asked Maddie.

"I'll use this guy's effect to summon his friend Glassjaw from my Graveyard…" he continued.

A glowing, red pentagram appeared on the floor, and Glassjaw rose out of it again. (2,000 ATK)

"Then… I build the Overlay Network!"

As the portal opened, the room darkened, and some _very _familiar music sounded over the restaurant…

_Figures… _thought Edgar, who remembered hearing from way back when it was popular.

Still, he was _much _more worried about the giant ogre that was looming in front of Maddie now, a hugely muscular pugilist standing almost nine feet tall, with red shorts that looked vaguely like a kilt and an iron mask. Of course, the most prominent feature were the shackles on his wrists that were linked to tight chains around his torso which, in turn, were bound to large, thick, metal beams the size of girders. He looked at Maddie and grumbled a little. (2,200 ATK)

"Aw, scared?" asked Ramón. "Well, don't be… Battlin' Boxer Lead Yoke is just a big teddy bear. Unfortunately… He's been known to _crush _to death _real _bears who he thought were teddy bears. See, that thing he's wearing prevents him from using his full strength… He's just TOO strong without it!"

"I should know this why?" asked Maddie.

"Because," he replied, "each time he battles, I can detach an Overlay Unit to protect him from being destroyed, and when he loses them, he gains 800 points for each."

_And he's not even wearing gloves… _thought Maddie.

Ramón smirked at her.

"I'll set one card, then pay 1,000 Life Points to activate the Field Spell, Ring of Fire!"

The set card appeared first, then, to Maddie's shock, four ring posts with turnbuckles appeared around them, but with no ropes… Then three flames shot from one post to the other in a stream, then from that one to another, forming a fiery boxing ring.

"Your move…" he said. "Can't believe I forgot to have someone tape this… Mom would love to see it…"

**(M: 4,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 2,000)**

"You're just as crazy as she is…" grumbled Maddie.

"Hey, watch it!" he snapped. "Like I keep saying, she is _not _crazy!"

"Yeah?" yelled Maddie. "Most insane people deny it, Ramón. Come on, really, she says she was the model for a painting, that…"

"Look, I can vouch for that!" he shouted, interrupting. "My dad painted it!"

Maddie stopped. She looked at him for a minute.

"Uh…" she said. "Okay… She also said that the guy who painted it was an alien…"

Ramón nodded. Maddie looked at Edgar.

"You're confirming that too?" she asked.

Ramón nodded again.

"Well, _that _was unexpected…" said the waitress.

"Okay, let's put two and two together, shall we?" said Maddie. "Given what we know so far… Your mom believes she was a victim of an alien abduction, the alien in question painted her portrait and then they fell in love, and she bore his child, and you believe you're that child, the old, uh…"

"The old 'alien baby daddy' thing, I think?" added the waitress, trying hard not to laugh, although some other customers were snickering.

"You say _that _as if it were a bad thing," replied Ramón, who clearly didn't think it was funny.

Of course, Maddie seemed to think it was even _less _funny.

"Ramón, I was willing to give your mom the benefit of the doubt and say she was confused," said Maddie, "but I was wrong… She is… _an absolute _nutcase!"

"You…" said Ramón.

He turned to Edgar.

"Don't look at me!" he replied. "I would have said it if she hadn't! This is the craziest claim I've ever heard, and you're talking to a guy who's fought his way through the Bedlam House of Jangling Hater!"

The waitress turned to him.

"You don't want to know," he said, lower.

Maddie shook her head, and reached for her deck.

"You said it was my turn…" she said, drawing.

_Whoa… _she thought.

"I use the Token Sundae Spell Card!" she shouted. This destroys all of my Tokens, and then destroys one of _your _cards for each!"

The three Fiends broke into jagged shards of glass.

"Usually, destroying them would hurt me more than it helped, but… Thanks for that One Day of Peace!"

The hot shards darted towards Lead Yoke…

"I use Forbidden Lance!" shouted Ramón.

His Quickplay Spell lifted, and a long, metal spear appeared in Lead Yoke's hands as the shards bounced off of him, despite his Score falling to only 1,400.

"Now he _can't _be destroyed… Smart, huh?"

"Your Field Spell survived too..." she muttered.

"That's because you _can't _destroy it if I have at least two regular Boxers or at least one Xyz Boxer," chuckled Ramon. "After all, you can't have the fight without the ring, now can you?"

Maddie looked at Lead Yoke, then at the spot where her Tokens had been. She gulped.

"Ah, heh…" she said. "I think I'll… I'll use my Magic Planter…"

Vines shot from the Spell Card, crumpling up the Remove Brainwashing card and crushing it. Maddie drew twice. She took one of those cards and another, a monster card, and a non-monster card from her hand, set them, and then said, very quickly, "I'll-set-those-and-I'm-done-now…"

"Well babe…" said Ramón.

He drew a card, and Lead Yoke's Score edged up back to 2,200 as the Lance disappeared.

"Like I said, no more playing the 'nice' way like Glassjaw and Switchitter do… Now we're playing the _other _way…

"…dirty! I summon Battlin' Boxer Rabbit Puncher!"

This boxer was much skinnier and less muscular than the others, with a red headgear, black shorts, oversized shoes, and large, yellow gloves. He also had long, carrot-red hair down his back. (800 ATK)

He aimed a punch at the set monster, causing a mad scientist in a lab coat and goggles – Kozaky – to appear on it. Then he savagely punched the Fiend _in the neck _with a horrifying snap that made the whole place gasp. Kozaky fell face first, and shattered.

_A rabbit punch… _thought Edgar. _An incredibly dangerous and illegal maneuver in boxing that has been known to be lethal… It seems a few of these boxers don't play by the rules. _

"Now for you, princess…" said Ramón.

Maddie nervously backed up… Then she realized what she was about to back into…

_Not a good idea… _she thought, looking at the flaming ropes.

What came next was _savage. _Lead Yoke's fist hit her with a crushing blow to her midsection that shook the room.

"You like that, bitch?" asked Ramón.

Maddie fell on her side, and groaned a minute. Lead Yoke backed up, and the referee appeared again, this time on _her _side.

"One… two… three…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Red Feather and Penelope giggled a little, and Penelope was _very _surprised. She had _never _heard her laugh, nor heard anyone else report it.

"Red, you ever hear the story of Jack Redboots?" she asked.

"Can't say I know him personally," replied Red.

"No, he hasn't been around in a few years," replied Penelope. "He was a verbeeg."

"I already don't like him," sighed Red.

Verbeeg were a race of Shadows with a very bad reputation among civilized races. Strangely related to both fey and giants, they were as big as ogres, and just as strong, and while they were powerful enough to take what they wanted from people by force, they much preferred to make a living by tricking people out of it through clever scams and deception, just to prove how smart they were. The old saying "there's a sucker born every" minute, which P.T. Barnum admitted he did _not _make up (although he also claimed he wished he had) may have actually been coined by one of these creatures.

"I know," said Penelope. "Anyway, Jack was one of the worst. His 'trick', so to speak, was to sit by a bridge over a river in the forests in Romania, a place with a close connection to the Feywild, and charge anyone who came by a rather expensive toll for crossing. But they'd only have to actually pay it if they came back to his side of the bridge. If they promised to do so, he'd let them pass.

"Of course, this was a trap. If they fell for that, then once they were halfway across, he'd grab hold of the rails of the bridge – which was secured to his side by a hinge so it could tip upward – and then do exactly that, causing the victim to fall back towards him."

"At which point he'd make the guy pay him, I suppose," sighed Red. "Clever. Dare I ask what happened to him?"

"As you might expect, he conned the wrong person," replied Penelope. "One day, his mark was a beautiful young elven maiden, who told him she didn't have any money, but asked if he would accept a kiss as payment."

"Uh oh…" said Red. "Temptress demon or ermordenung?"

"Ermordenung _assassin, _actually," replied Penelope. "A friend of a friend of some elven noble he had conned. Suffice to say, his brain malfunctioned, and he accepted that as payment. Last mistake he ever made.

"I guess the moral might be 'crime doesn't pay', but…"

"But maybe a better moral would be 'there's always someone better'," replied Red, "seeing as he was tricked by an even better trickster. So what brought this up?"

"Uh, the ermordenung," replied Penelope. "I ran into her the other day… We were friends from school… Like you just told me Red, nobody's perfect, and she and I can relate. I knew a lot of folks at school like that…"

"That would be… The 'prep school' your parents had you go to?" asked Red.

Penelope sighed a little.

"Longest four years of my life…" she muttered. "Anyway, I knew a guy in the same grade who thought he was God's gift to women. Guy was a chick magnet with hormones coming out of his ears. They used to call him Pieter '100 Percent' Patterson because of how easy it was for him to score."

"I know the type," said Red. She leaned on her arm. "He hit on you, I take it? What happened?"

"I finally dated him just to shut him up," replied Penelope. "You know, I kind of feel sorry for him…"

"How come?" replied Red.

"Well, after that," replied Penelope, "he could honestly only call himself Pieter '99 Percent' Patterson."

They both laughed.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" screamed Maddie.

She shoved the ref away from her and stood up, just as he reached the six-count.

"Still have some fight left, huh?" asked Ramón.

"Take a look," replied Maddie.

**(M: 5,800) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 2,000)**

"What… I…" he said.

Then he noticed the Trap Card, and someone next to Maddie. It was Second Goblin, holding a plastic sports bottle… The label was the same as the one for Nutrient Z.

"Thanks…" said Maddie. She wiped her mouth.

"Show off…" replied Ramón. "Now I'll have to bring out someone who _really _fights nasty…

"I use one effect of my Ring of Fire Field Spell; since my Xyz did damage, I get to summon another Battlin' Boxer, so long as it has a Level less than Lead Yoke's Rank. So I choose Rib Gardna."

A new boxer appeared who looked even taller and more hulking than Glassjaw, but not as muscular; more like "stout". He wore an orange headgear, _very _large red gloves, and true to his name, a full-body rib guard sparring suit. (100 ATK)

"A boxer with only a hundred Attack Points…" muttered Edgar. "I take it that this is another cheater, the type who takes a dive to rig a fight."

"True, but you give them too much credit," replied Ramón. "These guys are too dumb to fix a match on their own… To actually plan such a thing, well… I'm building the Overlay Network again…"

As the vortex opened a second time, the heroic music stopped, and a sinister cackle echoed through the restaurant. The two Level 3 Boxers dissolved, and a figure emerged who didn't seem dressed to fight at all. It was a seedy, suspicious looking fellow wearing a black trenchcoat, a red bow tie, sunglasses, a derby hat, and _lots _of bling. He held a bullhorn in his left hand shaped like a demon's head and slung a cane with a clawed tip over the other. (0 ATK)

"Meet my Battlin' Boxer Cheat Commissioner," said Ramón.

"Figures," said Edgar, with a frown. "When a match is rigged, don't blame the boxers, blame the guys running the business… Only in America…"

"You're learning," replied Ramón. "And he can do some neat tricks too, but before he does…"

He used a new Spell Card, and the vortex turned gold.

"…I'm using Xyz Gift, which I can do because I have two Xyzs. I just have to get rid of _both _of Lead Yoke's Overlay Units…"

As he discarded Glassjaw and Switchitter, Lead Yoke grunted, sweat, and strained… The yoke restraining him started to crack… Then he let out a horrid roar as it crumbled and collapsed into broken pieces of metal and wood, and his muscles seemed to double in size. (3,800 ATK)

"Oh, that's right…" said Ramón. "Because he lost both Units, he gains 800 Attack Points for each. And Xyz Gift lets me draw twice!"

He drew two cards, then quickly used two of them.

"I think I'll end by setting these two cards…" he said, fitting them in his Disk. "You're up, but next turn, the Raging Bull is gonna walk all over you!"

"Oh please," replied Maddie, as she drew, "you aren't Robert De Niro, hell you're not even Glass Joe!"

Edgar chuckled softly at this.

"Uh, who's Glass Joe?" asked the waitress.

"Uh, he's…" said Edgar. Then he stopped. "Aw, never mind… Suddenly I feel even older…"

"Besides," continued Maddie, "I don't know if anyone told you this, but that weasel Commissioner of yours had better find a bodyguard. Lead Yoke may be pretty strong, but Commissioner…"

"But his Score is zero, right?" asked Ramón. "True, but he _does _have a bodyguard. You can't attack him with Lead Yoke standing here. He has another effect too… All of your monsters have to attack, if they can. And in case you're thinking of defending…"

One of those two Traps lifted.

"I'm using Final Attack Orders!"

Mandy slowed down…

_This is just going from bad to worse… _she thought.

Then she took two of _her _cards, and set them, causing them to appear in her Spell Zone.

"Go ahead…"

"Well then…" said Ramón, as he drew. "I guess I can…"

"I use my Call of the Haunted card!" exclaimed Maddie.

Her card flipped up, and a rather bizarre monster leapt out of the floor, a jester with a green and black striped harlequin suit and cap, and blue cape, and red question marks covering his face and his chest. (2,000 ATK)

"Then, I use Tricky Spell 4," she said.

Her other card, a Quickplay Spell, turned on end, and rotated around. The Tricky faded into a blur, and the blur turned into two duplicates of himself. (1,200 DEF)

"This Spell sacrifices the Tricky to summon as many Tricky Tokens as you have monsters. They may move to Attack Mode…"

(3,000 ATK)

"But my Token Stampede applies to them too. And by the way, they _can't _attack."

"You think you're so smart, do you?" asked Ramón. "Well, I have news for you, my Ring of Fire has more than one effect. The only catch is, I can only use one of those effects per turn.

"I'll use the second effect this time… When one of my Boxers attacks, his target's Score will be reduced by half."

"Oh boy…" said Maddie, as the now even larger ogre lifted his fists.

Then the Cheat Commissioner snapped his fingers and grinned.

"What's _he _doing?" asked Maddie.

"Using _his _effect," replied Ramón. "Since a battle was just declared with one of my Boxers, I ditch _both _his Overlay Units, and if your hand has a Spell Card in it, then I get to take it and set it on my side of the field."

"You cannot be serious…" said Maddie.

He clearly was, because he discarded Rabbit Puncher and Rib Gardna, and the Commissioner cackled and aimed his bullhorn. The cards Maddie was holding started to emit green smoke, and then five large images of cards – Inferno Reckless Summon, Atlantean Pikeman, Axiomatic Alarm, Oh Tokenbaum, and Parasitic Ticky – appeared in front of her.

"Fate can be so cruel…" he said, disappointed. "Guess that will do…"

The bullhorn glowed again, sucking the Infernal Reckless Summon card through it like some crazy dustbuster. It quickly materialized flat behind the Commissioner.

Then, Lead Yoke finally socked the Tricky Token on the left, its Attack Score falling to 1,500 as he did so. Maddie grunted a little and held her stomach, but she had taken worse.

**(M: 3,500) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 2,000)**

"Fate can be so cruel?" asked the waitress.

"Well, he had to _set _that card, meaning he can't use it right now," replied Edgar. "If he had been able to _use _it this turn, well…"

_Well, Maddie would have been in big trouble, _he thought, not saying it out loud. _For his deck, that's a pretty _dangerous _Spell Card… _

"Again, I'm done," he said. "Getting tired? I'd hate to win by technical knock-out… Although… I'm really not sure what the hell that means…"

"Well, don't pull a muscle in your brain trying…" she replied, drawing again.

_Uhm… _she thought.

It was a _very _powerful Spell Card, but not one that she could use at the moment. She took the other two non-monsters in her hand and set them, then turned to him and waved her hand.

_Hopefully, I can last for a few rounds more… _she thought.

"My move again…" chuckled Ramón. "You know, funny… All of a sudden, I'm not so angry anymore…"

He drew a card.

"This is actually kinda fun! I play Battlin' Boxer Spirits! By sending a card from my deck to the Graveyard, I can summon Switchitter back in Defense Mode…"

The Warrior appeared again, kneeling. (1,400 DEF) Now Maddie was almost sweating, because she knew what was next.

As she expected, her Inferno Reckless Summon lifted up, and two duplicates of the Boxer appeared, giving him five monsters total. (1,500 ATK x2)

Then, finally, the Overlay Network opened again.

"Dear God, a three-monster Rank 4 Overlay?" exclaimed Edgar. "This is serious…"

"You bet it is!" laughed Ramón. "This guy may not be the true champion, but… Like they say, he's a contender… I summon Battlin' Boxer High Octane Haymaker!"

The dogs in the restaurant cowered at their owners' feet or shuddered in their arms at the new Warrior, who was truly a titan. This one not only stood head and shoulders above Lead Yoke, he seemed to be made of bronze, literally, wearing a helmet made in the style of a Corinthian helm (but much newer) and boxing gloves with spikes on the knuckles. (2,000 ATK)

"And because I have a Field Spell, he gains 300 more points for each Xyz Monster on the field!" he continued. "Isn't this fun?"

(2,900 ATK)

"Yeah, fun…" said Maddie, with a huge sigh. "A boxing match is turned into a brutal, bloody slugfest, but it sure is fun…"

"First off, I'll attack one of your Tokens with him, and I'll use my Ring's effect to cut its Score in half."

(1,500 ATK)

"You still can't destroy them…" added Maddie.

"Want a bet?" asked Ramón. "When _any _of my Boxers attack, I can use one of Haymaker's Overlay Units, and that monster is destroyed regardless!"

Before Maddie could fully process this, High Octane Haymaker's attack proved to be every bit what his name suggested. His glove burned with fire as it recklessly made a whipping sideways punch, shattering the Token.

Maddie screamed briefly, but Lead Yoke turned towards the other one, and Ramón discarded a second Overlay Unit from Haymaker. Fortunately, the Ring's effect apparently couldn't work twice.

"Gah…" said Maddie. Now she really _was _getting a little tired.

She almost panicked when his last Trap lifted up. It was Call of the Haunted.

Glassjaw leapt onto the ring again, looking _very _angry this time. (2,000 ATK)

_Don't scream, _she thought. _Don't scream, don't… Wait…_

As it lunged for her, one of her Trap Cards lifted up.

"I use the Trap Card, Axiomatic Alarm!" she shouted.

"What the…" he said.

Then he covered his ears as a loud siren rang though the restaurant. Maddie discarded Parasitic Ticky's card and then looked at her deck.

"I see the 'alarm' part, but…" he said.

"Since you made a direct attack, I get to draw a card," she said. "Let's just say, if it's a monster, this isn't over yet…"

She drew… Then breathed a sigh of relief.

"And it's Water Spirit!" she said. "I have to discard it, of course…"

She chucked it into her Graveyard pile.

"But now, I get to summon one Drone Token for every monster you have, and your attack is stopped cold."

Four little guys flew out of the card, small, sphere-shaped creatures, each with one eye, metal, mechanical limbs, and small wings on their backs made of something that looked like tinfoil.

"Mmf!" said Ramón, trying to stifle a laugh. "They… Actually, those guys are kinda cute…"

"Yeah, well, since Water Spirit is a Level 1 monster, each of them is also Level 1, and they have 300 points apiece for both areas…"

(300 ATK) x 4.

"Good grief, are _you _taking a dive now?" asked Ramón. "As if that will help… Usually when a fight is rigged _that _way, both boxers know about it…"

"She's not taking a dive, Ramón," interrupted Edgar. "You claim that boxers are too dumb to rig fights on their own? I'm starting to think you don't give them _enough_ credit. There's more to boxing than punching. Don't you even know about the famous strategy that Muhammad Ali used against George Foreman in 1974?"

Ramón stopped.

"The Rumble in the Jungle?" he gasped.

"Yes, the famous 'rope-a-dope', I believe," said Edgar. "Ali didn't exactly invent it, but he perfected it. You know, defending against your opponents blows until he gets tired and weak? It's not a common strategy, of course… Not many boxers are dumb enough to fall for it these days… Well… Not many, that is…"

Ramón looked at him, then looked back at the Tokens. He chuckled a little.

"Man, this is one in a million," laughed Ramón with a shrug. "I end my turn… Don't see what good those guys are gonna do you…"

_Oh, you have no idea… _she thought.

**(M: 1,300) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 2,000)**

"Draw!" she shouted.

She drew, but barely looked at the card. Her other Trap Card lifted up, and a very familiar German holiday tune started playing.

"It's a little early for Christmas," she said, "but hey, I'm using Oh, Tokenbaum! I'll sacrifice all four of my Tokens…"

The four little Drones disappeared.

"And in return, I can summon just as many _actual_ monsters from my Graveyard who match their Level…"

The first monster to appear was Water Spirit, a blob of watery goo with a skull-like face. (400 ATK). Then Kozaky (400 ATK), Skull Servant (300 ATK) and Mokey-Mokey (300 ATK)

"Well, I guess those are a _little _better," muttered her opponent, "but…"

"Next, Atlantean Pikeman…" she said, as a tall gill-man in armor holding a spear made the team of four a five. (1,400 ATK)

"Very pretty," he started, "but… Oh… shit…"

The sudden change of tone came in response to a Spell Card she was about to use. The _very _powerful one she had drawn earlier.

"I take it you know how The Law of the Normal works?" she said, her smile turning chilling. "I have five low-Level Normal Monsters in play, so this card destroys _every single card _we both have…

"All except them, that is…"

Burning, blazing fire appeared in the eyes of the four pint-sized monsters as they looked at the three goliaths. Cheat Commissioner panicked, dropped his bullhorn and cane, and hid behind Lead Yoke.

"You wish, you coward," growled Ramón. Then he turned back to Maddie. "I'm using the final effect of Ring of Fire… by getting rid of half my Life Points, one of my Battlin' Boxer Xyzs, and the Ring itself, I can protect the others…"

Cheat Commissioner disappeared as burning bolts of energy shot from the eyes of the five angry monsters. Glassjaw was nuked quickly, as was Token Stampede and both copies of Call of the Haunted, and what remained of both hands shattered, but both Lead Yoke and High Octane Haymaker stood firm, even if it looked like they had to push against a freight train ramming into them.

**(M: 1,300) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 1,000)**

"…which means next round, you've had it…" continued Ramón.

"As if, big guy, but you forgot one thing," said Maddie. "No Field Spell means Haymaker loses his 900-point bonus…"

(2,000 ATK)

"…which means this match is about to end in an upset… I Tune my Level 1 Water Spirit with my Level 2 Atlantean Pikeman and Level 1 Skull Servant, Kozaky, and Mokey-Mokey…"

The five minute monsters flew off the ground, forming a ring, then flying upwards.

**(*1 + *1 + *1 + *1 + *2 = *5)**

"A Synchro Summon?" shouted Ramón. "No fair!"

"They always say that when they're losing…" she sighed, shaking her head. "I Synchro Summon Mighty Warrior!"

Lightning flashed, and a hulking muscular brute appeared in place of the five small monsters. He was just as big as Colossal Fighter, with blue, metallic, cybernetic armor, a square jaw, and robotic arms. (2,200 ATK)

He took some warm up jabs as he and Haymaker looked each other in the eyes.

"By the way…" she said. "When he clocks a monster, you take damage equal to half its Attack Score…"

"Wait… WAIT!" he shouted.

Mighty Warrior refused to wait. It socked the Boxer _hard _in the jaw with a savage uppercut, knocking him down, knocking Ramón down with him.

The referee appeared again, as Mighty Warrior backed towards its master. He looked at Haymaker and Ramón, then waved his arms.

"KO!" he shouted.

Then he turned to Maddie and her Synchro, and the bell rang one more time.

"The winner!" he announced, as Mighty Warrior lifted its arms in triumph.

**(M: 1,300) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 0)**

The Solid Visions disappeared, and Edgar, who really had enough of the funny stuff by now, bent over Ramón.

"Is he alive?" asked Maddie.

"Either that or dead people drool pretty badly," he replied.

He shook his head.

"That's it… I'm gonna try to call the boss…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**TAKE OVER FIVE (Spell Card)**

**Normal Spell**

**Image: **A card being drawn from a Duel Disk as five glowing cards fly from the Graveyard.

**Effect: **Send the top 5 cards from your deck to the Graveyard. During your next Standby Phase, you may banish this card from your Graveyard to draw 1 card. While this card is in your Graveyard, effects that would send cards from your deck to the Graveyard are negated.

_Note: "Take Over Five" was first used by Judai in the "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" episode 167._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**INSIGHTFUL CARD OF REVERSAL (Trap Card)**

**Normal Trap**

**Image: ** Four cards flying through a void, two of them leaving wakes of blue colors, the other leaving wakes of red.

**Effect: **Activate when your opponent adds a card to his hand from his deck via a means other than drawing and you have less cards in your hand than your opponent does. Draw 1 card for every card in your opponent's hand.

_Note: "Insightful Card of Reversal" was first used by Yusei in the "Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds" episode 149._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**PINK SHEPHERD (Monster Card)**

**Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl2/800ATK/1,200DEF**

**Effect: **FLIP: Add at the End Phase of the turn, you may take 1 "Scapegoat" or "Stray Lambs" from your deck and activate it, disregarding the required timing of the card. You may banish 1 "Blue Shepherd" in your Graveyard to add this card from your Graveyard to your hand.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**BATTLIN' BOXER HIGH OCTANE HAYMAKER (Monster Card)**

**Warrior/Fire/Xyz/Effect/Rank4/2,000ATK/1,800DEF**

_4 Level 4 Monsters_

**Effect: **If you control a face-up Field Spell, this card gains 300 Attack Points for every face-up Xyz Monster on the field. When a "Battlin' Boxer" you control attacks an opposing monster, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to destroy the opposing monster at the end of the damage step.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**RING OF FIRE (Spell Card)**

**Field Spell**

**Image:**

**Effect: **Pay 1,000 Life Points to activate this card. This card cannot be destroyed if its controller controls 2 or more Leveled "Battlin' Boxer" monsters or at 1 Xyz "Battlin' Boxer" monster player can select 1 of the following 3 effects (if applicable) and activate it, once per turn. A player may only use an effect of this Field Spell once per turn.

If a "Battlin' Boxer" Xyz monster controlled by the turn player inflicts Battle Damage, the player may Special Summon a "Battlin' Boxer" monster at the end of the Battle Phase from his hand or deck with a Level lower than the Rank of the monster that inflicted damage.

When a "Battlin' Boxer" the turn player controls attacks an opposing monster, the turn player can reduce the ATK of the opposing monster by half for the damage step only.

If 1 or more "Battlin' Boxer" Xyz monsters would be destroyed by a card effect, their controller can pay half his Life Points and banish this card 1 face-up Xyz monster; any other "Battlin' Boxer" Xyz monsters that would be destroyed are not destroyed.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**AXIOMATIC ALARM (Trap Card)**

**Normal Trap**

**Image: **In the foreground, a squad of creatures shaped like cubes with clockwork arms and legs, faces on the front, and metal wings, marching in formation; behind them is a bizarre creature leaning over; a sphere perched on three stout legs with eyes and tendrils around the circumference and a stoic-looking mouth at the top.

**Effect: **Activate when your opponent declares a direct attack. Reveal the top card on your deck, and then discard it; if that card is a monster, negate the attack and end the Battle Phase. Then, you mat Special Summon 1 Drone Token for every monster your opponent controls. (Fairy/Light/Lvl?/ATK?DEF?) Drone Tokens are the same Level as the monster discarded, and have 300 Attack and Defense Points per Level. Drone Tokens cannot attack. During your next End Phase, destroy the Drone Tokens.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Jemorille: On one hand, Ramón's story is one that had been seen many times before. The son of two parents who undergo a long and painful divorce that the son has to witness before the court grants his mother custody will sometimes become very attached to his mother, not wanting to lose her as well. But he becomes bitter towards everyone else, angry towards the world. As a result, a slight against his mother is one he will avenge, no matter how small.**_

_**The problem was, he not only expanded up Yolanda's absurd story, but he made it even more absurd. The question the Shadowchasers had to ask at this point was whether jail or a psychiatric ward was more fitting. Still… They knew something was amiss.**_

_**Next chapter, we move FAR away from Roswell, away from the United States as a whole, and away from the Shadowchasers in fact.**_

_**The Conspiracy had more involved than them, even if they didn't know it, and it's time to meet another group of unwitting pawns…**_

"_**Nick of Time" is next. **_

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Shadowchaser Files: Races**

**The Incantifers**

To Shadowkind races that are not skilled in wizardry, they are feared and dreaded as unstoppable forces of nature. To those who are, they are admired, respected, and in some cases, worshipped. Even dark elves grudgingly acknowledge their might. They are so powerful, one of their number, Maskent, is the co-author and co-signer of the Great Treaty and Shadowkind's representative in all matters concerning it, and according to some, the mightiest wizard on Earth and most powerful Shadowkind in the world, period. (Although some would argue on this point.)

According to records at the Origin Universe and the Library Arcanium, the Incantifers were once either humans or members of a human-like race, and began as the Incanterium, a society ruled by wizards on the homeworld of Shadow millennia ago. Drawing upon an energy field that they called the Weave, which they believed to be the source of all arcane magic, they eventually started a daring plan: an experiment to become one with the Weave, which if successful, would amplify their power a hundredfold, enabling them to – dare to say it – rule the world. No records, formulae, or equipment pertaining to the experiment or how it was to be conducted still exist; if any of the necessary components survived after the actual plan was put in motion, it is very likely that they were destroyed later.

Why? Suffice to say, it didn't work quite the way they planned.

Only the strongest of the Incanterium survived the cataclysm that the experiment caused. When they crawled out of the rubble that was once their capital, they found that they had actually achieved partial success. They were indeed closer to the Weave in spirit than they had ever been, and far stronger than before. Still, with their kin dead and all they had worked for all their life gone, it was cold comfort. The survivors parted company, and wandered the world searching for purpose from that point on.

The modern Incantifers that appear on Earth today are all the descendants of those ancient people, either via actual blood offspring or through the occasional apprentice that an exceptionally powerful one is able to endow with the same powers. (If any are the original Incanterium, none are bold enough to make that claim.) All are, without exception, powerful wizards, and strive to understand magic and knowledge to the fullest, discovering the most hidden of secrets.

Typically, Incantifers resemble frail, wrinkled old men and women. This is an illusion, because they are incredibly strong and agile. (After all, it's easy to use magic to _appear _youthful should the need arise, but most consider using magic for cosmetic purposes a waste of precious resources.) Their eyes have no irises or pupils, and you can feel the magical power emitting from them by just being near them. Incantifers sort of "smell" like magic; it sort of like a stale odor that never goes away.

Most Incantifers are specialist wizards, mainly invokers, transmuters, and illusionists. They tend to carry a _lot _of useful magical items, like wands, potions, scrolls, and things like rings and other items that give magical protection. As you might expect, they are always armed to the teeth with the best spells, and have lived long enough to discover ones that most wizards have never heard of. Many of them can even research and learn Epic Spells.

At first it would seem that Incantifers are little different pound-for-pound than any other powerful and well-prepared sorcerer. But there is one vital difference: They have the ability to absorb magical spells that are cast at them. This is an inborn ability, and how successful they are at it depends on how skilled they are at wizardry. If it works, an enemy wizard that tries to use a spell on an Incantifer not only fails to hurt him, but the Incantifer only benefits, as the magic feeds his energy.

In fact, magic is how they sustain themselves. It isn't widely known, but they aren't truly immortal; rather, they stay young by absorbing magic. They can live off the residual energy from ley lines and other magical places, but can also drain the power from magical items. Pragmatic or clever Incantifers often drain the power from cursed items like Bags of Devouring or Mirrors of Opposition, destroying dangerous items and feeding themselves at the same time, while those who support the forces of good do the same to evil magic items, preventing beings who would use them from doing so. (This does not hurt them, as they only consume the magic, not the evil power within it.) In fact, Incantifers trapped in dead magic zones have been known to starve. (And it isn't a pleasant way to die for them, as at least one witness can attest; this is one of the few things they are afraid of.)

What is their ultimate goal? If they worship anything, for the most part, it's knowledge. However, most of the civilized world is glad that the majority of them are on Jalal's side.


	5. Nick of Time

_**So, what did Truthers believe was the actual motive behind 9/11? They were divided on it.**_

_**Liberals who believed in the conspiracy blamed big corporations, thinking it was done by the Bush Administration to create an excuse to invade the Middle East and seize their oil reserves. In other words, "blame the terrorists to make Americans scream for Bin Laden's blood, invade Iraq, and reap the profits". Of course, that raises the question, "Why didn't they do that during the Gulf War?" (When asked that, Truthers claimed that Bush supported Saddam Hussein for some reason.)**_

_**Conservatives, on the other hand, played into general distrust of government and international agencies, like the UN. They quickly linked 9/11 to groups like the New World Order and the Illuminati (like I mentioned earlier) as part of a plan to create a fascist or communist (depends on who you asked) world government. This theory focuses on anti-terrorist measures like the US PATRIOT Act that were passed after the attack, which they claimed were the beginning of bringing the world into a "police state", something conservative politicians warned about frequently. **_

_**Then there are people who even most other Truthers viewed – and still view – as vile: Anti-Semitic Truthers. They blamed Israel, claiming that their government was the mastermind, doing it to gain support among Americans in their conflict against Arab nations. These people even claimed that agents contacted four-thousand Jews who worked at the Towers and warned them not to go to work that day. In truth, ten to fifteen percent of the 9/11 victims were Jewish, a number that nearly corresponds to New York's Jewish population. **_

_**There are other theories, of course. Some of them are rather ridiculous, like how it was a huge insider trading scam, or even a huge insurance fraud plot thought up by Larry Silverstein, the owner of the Towers (few Truthers believe he was actually the mastermind, but some claim he was "in on it"). The problem with that – other than the obvious – is that while he did own an insurance policy on the buildings, he originally wanted a much **_**smaller **_**one, and had been pressured by stockholders to increase it. If he had waned to commit fraud, he certainly wouldn't have done that. Also, due to his lease, he had to make payments on the destroyed buildings for decades after the attack, and even with the insurance he gained, he actually lost a fortune.**_

_**In the end, the Truthers may say that their theories make more sense than a terrorist attack, but the fact is, the terrorist attack makes FAR more sense when you look at the big picture.**_

**0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**CHAPTER THREE**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Nick of Time**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

The next morning, at 7AM, at Green Bay, the muscular guy who had killed the guy in the gym was at a greasy spoon, leaning back in a chair, sipping very strong black coffee.

_Ugh,_ he thought. _This stuff is terrible… Well, at least it has caffeine…_

As he sipped it, he looked through the window at Lambeau Field down the road.

_Been so long since I've been here… Can't imagine why I ever left… I mean, this city has…_

_He stopped._

_It's got… uhm… Well it's got…_

He looked around.

"Well, it has the Packers, it has cheese," he said aloud, "and… it's got Packers fans who wear hats shaped like cheese…"

Suddenly, he remembered why he left. He leaned back and put his feet up on the table.

"Well, I can think of worse places to spend the weekend."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Elsewhere, and else-when, seven hours ahead via the time difference, across the whole United States, across the Atlantic, and several leagues inland, it was two in the afternoon in the historic fortress city of Pamplona, Spain.

The weather was much warmer than it was in Green Bay, but cooler than it was in Roswell, typical weather for the Navarre region.

In an empty store where a sign that said "Closed for Renovations" was posted on the front door, a silvery globe appeared in mid-air. It turned into a spiral, then into an opening.

A man stepped out. Well, maybe he was a man. His entire face was covered with bandages, and he wore dark sunglasses. He also wore a fedora, a heavy overcoat, and black gloves, and carried a satchel on his side.

He looked back and forth a couple of times.

"All clear," he said. It wasn't English, or Spanish, the local language, but Italian, oddly enough. Of course, that was where he had just come from.

Two more odd men stepped out of the portal. The first was a big, muscular guy with blonde hair and beige-colored clothing, with a lot of straps and pockets. The other guys was just as big, looked incredibly heavy-set, and had long, black hair, a long nose, and sharp teeth.

They nodded, and the most unusual member of the group came out, a small child – apparently – with neatly cut blonde hair, blue eyes, and a white suit that was obviously custom-tailored.

"Welcome to Pamplona, gentlemen," he said with a sigh, indicating that he probably didn't want to be here. "And I use the term loosely…"

The bandaged man jiggled the door for a few seconds, and then it opened. He held it open for the odd child to walk out.

"So, uhm, why exactly are we in Pamplona anyway?" asked the black-haired muscleman. "And what exactly is in this place?"

"Isn't this the place that has those toy bulls that they have at kids parties?" asked the blonde muscleman. "You know, they fill them with candy, then hang them from the ceiling, and…"

"That is called a piñata, Uccisore," snapped the child, "and they are in Mexico, not Spain, believe me, there is a difference! Now will you guys focus?"

It all seemed strange, of course, but there was far more to Cattivo Fanciullo – known in European underworld circles as one of the most influential mob bosses among Shadowkind – than he appeared. He was far older than he looked, and he wasn't human. Exactly what species of Shadowkind he was, well, that was a secret than may have been known only to himself. No-one had ever been able to see through the many layers of enchantment that disguised him, a big reason he had survived in this business so long.

The other men were three of his most powerful enforcers; the blonde one was Drago Uccisore, his bodyguard, the black-haired one Tormento Amare, his interrogator, and the bandaged one Picchiare Uomo, his top assassin.

"Now pay attention," he said. "As I _attempted _to explain before, not that you clowns were listening, the reason we're in this tourist trap is because Pierre LaRusse offered us a large supply high-grade smuggled crystalized adamantine for about a third the regular black market price. It was too tempting not to investigate."

"LaRusse?" asked Uomo. "I thought you hated that guy."

"I do!" replied Fanciullo. "And seeing as I don't trust the bastard any further than I can throw him, I need some people I _can_ trust with me. Unfortunately, you three mugs are the best I have, so keep your eyes open."

He turned to Amare, who was looking closely at a vendor at the side of the street selling tamales.

"And you can eat _later_, Amare!" he shouted, grabbing the much bigger thug by the ear.

"Ow! Right, sorry boss…" he said, Fanciullo yanked him away.

The don let go, and the four mobsters hurried along at a brisk pace, past most of the cathedral-like, old-fashioned structures of Pamplona, towards the more modern buildings, and finally, towards the train station at the southern part of the city, the relatively recent addition that had been completed in 2015, linking Pamplona to Zaragoza, Madrid, and Barcelona.

As they reached a platform for the passenger trains. They waited for an express train to rush past, then Uomo stopped and held his left arm out. Then motioned, and they slipped past the security camera, towards a loading dock for the cargo trains. They went _through _there and through the train yard itself, towards a large maintenance garage.

Of course, none of this was unusual for them. Whenever Fanciullo or any other mobster met someone to buy or sell contraband, he expected them to want to meet in a secure area where the police weren't likely to notice.

Of course, when they stepped into the garage, and the doors slammed shut behind them, and then barricaded itself with not one, but _two _steel gates… Well, to be honest, while this wasn't what Fanciullo had _hoped, _he really couldn't say he didn't expect it.

Shadowy shapes started to move around them. His three henchmen formed a semi-circle around him.

"Like _this_ was a surprise…" said Uccisore.

"Boss…" said Uomo.

He looked at a device resembling a wristwatch he was wearing.

"Either my watch has stopped, or this building is warded, and seeing as it isn't a watch…"

Fanciullo nodded. Of course, he had expected _that _too. It seemed the only way out would be the old fashioned way.

"Over there…" whispered Amare.

Fanciullo turned his head, towards a door with an Exit sign. It was unlit, and a guard was by it, but the don knew what he meant.

He nodded, and the clicks of several firearms came from the shadows. Uccisore pulled a Mateba Model 6 from his coat, Amare produced a pair of Glock pistols, and Uomo… He reached into his satchel and somehow yanked an AK-47 out of it. (It was much bigger than the satchel itself; explaining how it worked is something for another time.)

Then Fanciullo took off. Towards the door. Just as LaRusse's men opened fire.

As he'd hoped, they tried their best to focus on _him, _completely ignoring Uomo, Amare, and Uccisore as they returned fire. Hopefully, they'd be shooting at their backs while they tried to shoot at him, a strategy that had worked a dozen times.

Many would say this was dangerous, but in this dimly lit and wide-open area, he could conceal himself in the shadows even while moving at a full sprint, a talent he took pride in. He reached the door rather easily, knocked the guard out with a solid punch, and then slammed against the door with his shoulder, breaking it open.

The look on the guard's face had been priceless… Understandably, his punch came as a _very _big surprise to anyone on the receiving end. The door had been dead-bolted shut and barricaded from the outside, probably why only one guy was guarding it; for some reason, no-one ever expected him to be very tough. Still, he had to move fast; he was pretty sure that LaRusse had bribed a few people who worked here, and had to find a high ground or some way to call in backup before his foe did.

Of course, the thing on the front of his mind at the moment was what he planned to do to the guy when he got his hands on him…

_I'll put him in cement shoes and dump him into the Caspian Sea, _he thought. _No, wait… On second thought, I'll string him up right outside __Puerta del Sol__, let everyone know I did it…_

_No, better yet… The fat bastard loves the Running of the Bulls in this city so much, maybe I can rig something up so they run him over… It's not until, what, July? I can think something up before then…_

His angry thoughts were interrupted by a scream… A young girl's scream.

He stopped. He peered over his shoulder down the train yard, and saw a young girl struggling with a man-sized figure.

Logic told the crime boss to keep running, and ignore it… To most mobsters, an attack on your life by a rival meant the first things you should do is save yourself and then plan a counterattack.

But Fanciullo wasn't like that. A promise he had made years ago said that he'd never hurt a child, or through his inactions, let one be hurt.

Now was no exception.

He ran towards them, and this… This defied all logic. The guy trying to restrain the young girl – who seemed to be a typical street urchin in old clothing and dirty hair – was dressed in a jacket and pants that looked like they had been spray-painted silver, with platform shoes, gold chains, and a _huge _Afro haircut.

He was wearing a Duel Disk too, a streamlined model shaped like a sharp blade, much like the one Jack Atlas had.

_What the… _thought. Fanciullo.

"Gimme it, you little brat…" said the thug, to the struggling child (in English, oddly enough).

"Hey, Tinkerbelle!" shouted Fanciullo, quickly switching to English.

"What's this?" asked the weird man, turning around.

Fanciullo rolled his eyes. The guy actually had tinted sunglasses on top of it.

"Butt out, kid, I'm busy!" he said.

"I can't quite place the accent, there," said Fanciullo. "Are you from the States, or from Mars?"

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't get fresh there!" he replied. "Tell me kid, did your mom buy those clothes for you?"

_Huh… He clearly doesn't recognize me… _thought Fanciullo. _Think I'll have some fun…_

"Right," he said. "Says the guy wearing an outfit louder than Luciano Pavarotti with a bad hangover."

The thug looked at him strange. He lowered the shades to look at him.

"I don't like smart-ass kids," he said.

"I'm not too fond of big, ugly jerks who pick on people smaller than they are," replied Fanciullo. "If there's one thing I know about bullies, they tend to be cowards."

"HEY!" he shouted. "I ain't no coward!"

"I see you're a duelist," replied Fanciullo. "Why don't you prove it?"

The odd man chuckled a little, then looked at the girl.

"Sit still, little lady…" he said. "Antoine hasta teach this little runt some manners…"

Then he pushed down on her shoulder, and she fell on her behind.

"Kid thinks he's tough, huh? Well, the down train is about to leave, and Antoine here's the engineer!"

"Antoine, huh?" asked Fanciullo. "Hope your dueling is better than your material."

The Disco man activated his Disk, and then spun on his shoes.

"Bein' in this train station reminds old Antoine of an old tune, kid…" he said.

Then he stopped, and posed dramatically.

"_A stranger lying on a bar room floor  
Had drank so much he could drink no more  
So he fell asleep with a troubled brain  
To dream that he rode on that down bound train."_

He shifted, then posed again.

"_The engine with blood was sweaty and damp  
And brilliantly lit with a brimstone lamp  
And imps for fuel was shoveling bones  
While the furnace rang with a thousand groans."_

Again, he pivoted and posed.

"_The boiler was filled with lots of beer  
The devil himself was the engineer  
The passengers were most a motley crew  
Some were foreigners and others he knew  
Rich men and lost beggars in rags  
Handsome young ladies and wicked old hags."_

"On second thought…" mumbled Fanciullo, "killing LaRusse after all this would be WAY too merciful…"

His own, smaller, collapsible Disk unfolded on his arm.

"D-Gazer, set!" he exclaimed, as he fit it over his eye. His foe, however, simply switched a lens on his sunglasses.

"Shall we?" he said with a smirk.

**(Fanciullo: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Antoine: 8,000)**

"Oh, YEAH!" laughed Antoine. He drew, and spun in a complete circle as he did so.

"I'm calling Shining Angel out…"

As he played the card, the familiar winged Fairy in a toga appeared in a shimmer. (1,400 ATK)

"Then I'll use my Titan's Charity Spell Card," he said, setting up a Continuous Spell. "This card effect comes into _effect _when a Level 8 or higher monster is Special Summoned, and let's its controller draw once."

_Whoa, _thought Fanciullo. _Now _that's _a card you don't see every day…_

He knew what it did, but not many duelists used it unless their monsters were _very _powerful…

"Then I'll put too cards flat," said Antoine, as two set cards formed behind the Angel, "and that's that…"

_And to think, I thought this was going to be a dull day… _thought Fanciullo.

He drew a card, then took one quickly.

"You have more monsters than I do," he said, "so I can Special Summon the Toy Knight."

There was a rallying trumpet sound, and a knight – who was even shorter than Fanciullo – hopped out in front, one that looked like it had come from some Lego construction set. It had the typical helmet and a toy sword, its upper torso was blue and had a pink T on it, the lower torso pink with an upside-down blue T. (200 ATK)

"Hey… cute," said Antoine.

"Well… This next guy isn't so cute," replied Fanciullo, "I'll sacrifice Toy Knight…"

The little soldier disappeared.

"…and then I'll bring out Silent Swordsman LV5!"

Indeed, _this _Warrior was far from cute; he was _overwhelming. _Standing six-foot-two, he wore a long, dark blue overcoat over a matching shirt and trousers, with shiny silver buttons, and a belt with a large buckle. He had large, leather boots, and a helmet with a bladed crest over a handsome face with long, flaxen blonde hair. He hefted a sword over his shoulder that was as big as _he _was. (2,300 ATK)

"_Okay, _SO un-cool!" shouted Antoine.

"You haven't seen the half of it," replied Fanciullo. "I'm playing the Spell Card, Toy Box…"

He played the card, and a pine box with a happy, cheery face on the front with rubber arms bounced out.

"Unfortunately, it has no toys in it, so I'll just put a couple there…"

The box's lid opened, and he took two more of his cards, holding them aloft. They both turned into wispy motes, and flew upwards, then made two mid-air circles, and flew into the box, which closed.

"I don't get it…" replied Antoine.

"If you want the four-one-one, I just banished those two monsters," replied Fanciullo, "but, I can use the Toy Box to summon one of them once per round, starting right now."

The lid opened, and one of the two wisps flew out again. It formed into a cute-looking, plastic tugboat, about the size of Toy Knight, painted bright colors with a propeller. (1,000 ATK)

"And because I banished my Toy Boat before I summoned it, I get to summon a Toy Car in Defense Mode."

There was a cute-sounding automobile horn, and a car that looked like a wind-up Volkswagen Beetle with a turnkey on the rear chugged up next to the plane. (1,200 DEF)

"But we'll get to those later…"

Silent Swordsman held his weapon in front of him, and his expression turned dour.

"My Swordsman is about to go medieval on your Angel's candy-ass! Attack with Sacred Blade!"

The Warrior held the hilt in both hands, then moved like a blur, hitting Shining Angel with nary a sound, but an impact that Antoine certainly felt. The two pieces of the Fairy, bisected at the waist, dissolved a few seconds after his follow through.

**(F: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 7,100)**

Antoine was surprised, of course, but the young girl at his feet even more so. She looked at the mobster with wonder.

"Amscray, kid!" shouted Fanciullo.

She did nothing. She just looked at him as the Disco man next to her coughed and held his chest.

"I mean it!" he shouted. "RUN!"

"Don't even _think _about it!" said Antoine, causing her to cover her head before he turned back to his opponent. "I don't like kids that talk back, _but… _At least I can initiate my Angel's effect, and bring Decago Knight to the field…"

There was a flash, and an… odd Warrior formed, a faceless creature with a bald head made of what looked like white ceramic, a smooth torso and limbs made of rubbery, black material, blue, blocky boots, gloves, and a cape with a very high collar, a sword, and a shield shaped like a decagon with red swirls on the surface. (1,000 ATK)

"…this one ain't plastic, like your Knight…"

"That's supposed to be a good thing, right?" asked Fanciullo, looking at the thing.

_I don't know about "plastic", _he thought, _but it sure is strange…_

"And 'cause it's Level 10, I get to draw one card…" continued Antoine.

The Titan's Charity card sparkled, and he drew once.

_Ten? _thought Fanciullo. _Okay, odd…_

"I'll set this card, and it's your move, Mr. Anachronism…" he said, as a face-down card formed in his Spell Zone.

"Mr. Anachronism?" asked Antoine.

As the guy drew, Fanciullo chuckled a little.

"Yeah, I know it's a little lame," he said, "it's just that I never thought I'd have to think up a witty insult for someone dressed like _that…"_

"Sit on it, kid," said the thug, "first, I use this… It's called Illegal Summon…"

_Okay, never saw _this _before, _thought the mobster.

"First thing Antoine does here, is take a monster from my deck, then summon it to your side," he said.

He flipped a second copy of Decago Knight around.

"You get to decide which Mode…"

"I have _no _idea what's going on, but I'll choose Defense Mode," replied Fanciullo.

The card appeared on his Disk, sideways, and another weird Knight appeared, kneeling and lifting its shield. (1,000 DEF)

"You do know, of course, that now _I _get to draw because of your Spell Card, right?"

He made a draw, and Antoine frowned a little.

"Well, once you do," continued the thug, "then you do the same with one of yours… As in, summon one of _your _monsters to _my _side."

"If I must…" said Fanciullo, with a sigh. "Toy Magician, you're up…"

There was a twinkling of stars, and a blocky-looking sorcerer made of plastic in a blue robe with a _very _tall hat, incredibly sharp features, and spiky, red hair appeared on Antoine's side. (1,600 ATK)

"Now, I can use a Trap Card," continued the thug, as his other set card opened. "Guard Off! It reduces the Defense Score of every monster on the field to zero."

"Oh… kay…" said Fanciullo. "I suppose there must be… Some benefit to reducing everyone's Defense Score to zero, even though my strongest monster is defending…"

"Indeed…" replied Antoine, "maybe even a couple, like the fact that for each of _my _monsters that was reduced to zero Defense, you take 400 points of damage!"

Two pulsating bursts struck Fanciullo in the chest. His smirk disappeared.

**(F: 7,200) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 7,100)**

"You like that?" asked Antoine. "Now I use A Rival Appears! Decago Knight is Level 10, so now it's time for one Antoine's _big _stars to take the stage!"

Another Trap lifted, and he held one of his cards in the air, spun again, then posed… Then threw it on his Disk…

There was an explosion of fire, dirt, and residue behind him, and the young girl at his feet screamed. The monster rising from the ground was _huge, _and it rose up into the air, causing a downdraft.

Fanciullo took two steps backwards to look at the thing… It was a dirigible, with scarlet metal – he assumed – plating over the balloon and rocket engines below. (2,900 ATK)

"The Supercolossal Airship – Giant Hindenburg!" he shouted.

Fanciullo looked at it for minute.

"Your monster seems to have been inspired by your tastes," said Fanciullo. "It's something that ended in a big disaster!"

"That's the whole point, kid," replied Antoine. "But first thing's first, I get to draw once…"

The Charity card sparkled again, and he drew.

"Now let's drive that point home… I sacrifice my Decago Knight and your Toy Magician…"

The two monsters disappeared, and there was another explosion. This time, even Fanciullo ducked and covered his head to avoid the debris.

"I summon Supercolossal Unsinkable Superliner – Elegant Titanic!" he shouted.

This one was just as big as the other, but it didn't quite suggest the notorious cruise liner. It brought to mind a cross between that and an old-fashioned galleon, complete with oars poling it on the stern. It had a fancy gilded design shaped like flames on the bow. (2,800 ATK)

"With both of my disasters on the field, I can _in-it-i-ate _my super-colossal combo!"

"Are you gonna do it, or are you gonna talk all day?" asked Fanciullo.

"Your monsters have zero Defense Points cause of my Trap Card," continued Antoine, "so Titanic's effect can wipe one of them out, and now it's rainin' pain! Go Depth Purge!"

Powerful bolts of blue lightning flashed, blowing Silent Swordsman to little pieces. Fanciullo actually winced in pain this time.

_So maybe this guy's a little more serious than those clothes suggest… _he thought.

He looked at the girl next to him.

_Damn it, why is she still there and not, say, Copenhagen? _

**(F: 6,050) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 7,100)**

"You also take damage equal to half his Attack Score," said Antoine, "but I'm not done… First my Airship is gonna take back that Decago Knight I gave you in _spades! _Attack!"

Twin missiles fired from the craft, and the Warrior burst into a cloud of dust.

"I guess putting him in Defense Mode was a good idea…" said Fanciullo, sounding a little irked now.

"Your Toy Boat isn't defending," replied the Disco duelist, "and _my _boat is bigger!"

Titanic started to advance as its bow started to glow…Then Fanciullo's Quickplay Spell shot up, and a totem pole burst out of the ground, a loud alarm ringing over the yard.

"What's going on?" shouted Antoine.

"My Command Silence, that's what," said Fanciullo. "It prevented Titanic from hearing your order to attack. Thus, my Toy Boat is safe, and I also get to draw once…"

He drew, and then looked up at the two huge Machines with a look of worry. He was almost sure LaRusse was watching somehow, and probably recording it.

"Take note…" said Antoine, "Hindenburg has an effect too… If either of us summons a monster that's Level 5 or higher, then any on the field that are _Level 9 or lower _move to Defense Mode."

_Terrific, _thought Fanciullo, _You'd need a pretty powerful monster. If I lose to this dip, __the entire Italian underworld will never let me hear the end of it…_

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Two hours earlier, several leagues to the northwest, in his office in the main administrative building in Shadowchaser Headquarters, Martin Jabels stared intently at his computer screen at two pictures he had found of Yolanda and Ramón.

Neither of them was a mug shot. Looking into their history, he hadn't found any record of anything illegal that they had done other than a parking violation or two, up to now.

In fact, this was _very _confusing. Nothing in their past had suggested anything sinister; some people who had known them had described them as "eccentric", but then, most genasi were. Ramón had even graduated from the University of Michigan four years ago with a degree in engineering.

And their claims didn't hold up. A birth certificate he had found put Yolanda's age at forty-one, not even close to being old enough to have modeled for that painting, and Ramón's father was listed as her ex-husband, who was alive and well and living and living in West Virginia. (There was nothing suspicious about _him _either; in fact, this incident would more than likely convince a judge to revoke her alimony claims.)

There was only one thing that seemed even remotely off-key, and that was a two-week period that happened about a year ago, possibly the time that the waitress claimed they had changed. Both of them left Roswell for the two weeks, Yolanda's massage parlor being closed for that time, and Yolanda herself unwilling or unable to give an explanation to customers – many of whom had appointments at the time – when she got back. She simply refunded them and told them to drop it.

_And until they wake up and are able to talk, it seems we won't have much to go on, _he thought._ Maybe if we asked Mr. Clayton _nicely _he'd let us look at the painting a little closer, but I'm not sure if he's anxious to let it out of his sight for the time…_

Then the phone rang next to him. He tapped the intercom button.

"Go ahead, Dolores," he said.

"I found that information on Mr. Lupin you wanted," she said. "Like Ms. Witt claims, he seemed to disappear completely about five years ago, but he _obviously _planned it.

"Given what I have, he spent the month before he vanished preparing for something like this… He closed his bank accounts, credit card accounts, and then cashed in every insurance policy he had and liquidated almost everything he owned that he didn't take with him. He aborted every contract he could, including the ones with his cable, internet, and mobile phone providers. Even paid the early cancellation fees. He even went so far as to cancel his subscription to _Time Magazine. _I didn't even know you could do that."

"Contrary to popular belief…" said Jabels, with a slight chuckle.

"And as for where all his funds went… Well, the only thing anyone could tell me is, likely some Swiss bank account."

"Or a better one," added Jabels.

Indeed, he and Dolores knew that Swiss banks had a reputation for guaranteeing privacy, so much that opening an account in one would protect your funds not only from criminals and con artists, but other governments as well. Switzerland wasn't part of the European Union, and its neutral policy meant that anyone who had a reason to put money where _nobody _could even find it – let alone get their hands on it – should try there…

Except for Shadowkind who knew about certain other places who were even _better _as far as security was concerned. Most Swiss banks could do little to defend against magical intrusions, but there were banks staffed by wizards and other supernatural entities who were wise to that.

Still, right now, it would be hard to justify even making an inquiry to Philip's old bank. Jabels couldn't find any incriminating record on him either.

_Interesting, yes, but not incriminating, _he thought, looking at another file.

Philip had been working at the accounting department of some company that was working on experimental aircraft designs. That might have suggested the Ziggurat, but…

He sighed, and turned the computer off.

_Sofia will be disappointed, _he thought, _but we aren't a bureau of missing persons…_

He picked up a paper on the side of the desk, on which his "To Do List" was written.

Number 3 was "Find information for Sofia." He wrote a check next to it.

Number 4 was "Pick up order at Copek."

_I have other things to do for now… _he thought.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"I'll set one more card, then it's your move, short-stuff," said Antoine, as he fit a new card in his Disk.

Fanciullo drew, and he stopped for a brief moment.

_Now's my chance… _he thought.

"I summon the _other _monster I banished!" he shouted, as the Toy Box's lid opened again. "My Toy Plane!"

This time, a plastic toy propeller plane with stars on the wings hopped out of the box. (1,800 ATK) Then the Toy Box itself faded away.

"This monster has a useful effect that works with Toy Boat and Toy Car," he continued. "If I sacrifice Toy Plane to summon a monster with _one _of the other two, I get to draw two cards. But if I sacrifice _all three _to summon a monster, I get to draw _three _times."

"A _triple _sacrifice?" gasped Antoine, looking over his sunglasses.

"That's right…" said Fanciullo. "Time for your two monsters to live up to their namesakes… I use Toy Boat, Toy Car, and Toy Plane…"

The three toys turned into spheres of light, there was a crackle, and a rumble of thunder… Then a flash, revealing a powerful figure with a mighty sword…

Gilford the Lightning was here. (2,800 ATK)

"Forget?" asked Antoine. "He's over Level 5, but _under _Level 10, so my Hindenburg moves him to Defense Mode!"

"As if," replied Fanciullo.

He played a card, and the Gilford dodged the surge of energy, causing it to his Fanciullo instead.

"My Devoted Defender card cost me 1,000 Life Points," he said, "but it protected Gilford from your monster's effect.

**(F: 5,050) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 7,100)**

"Now, where was I… Right… Those three draws, _and _Gilford's effect."

He made a soft chuckle, then made three draws. Gilford's eyes glowed, and he lifted his sword.

"_Demolish _them…" he ordered.

Lightning crashed down from the heavens, striking the two crafts… The whole train yard shook as the two of them collapsed behind Antoine, and flames and black smoke filled the air…

"Lord… I didn't expect _that _big an explosion…" said Fanciullo.

He held his hand over his eyes and peered at the two burning wrecks through the smoky haze. The smoke obscured Antoine for the moment…

But not the young girl, who was on her hands and knees just looking at him, with a strange, worried look.

"Kid, do I have to spell it?" he shouted. "Get up! Run! I can only hold him for…"

Then, he was interrupted as a diabolic laugh sounded over the field, then a bone-numbing chill…

_What's going on?_ he thought.

There was an ominous whistle as the flames vanished in one final waft of smoke that assumed the shape of a skull, making a low howl. Antoine stepped out of the smoke.

"I activated the Trap Card, Ruinous Omen!" replied Antoine, pointing to his card. "My two Machines may have been big disasters, but they were both at least Level 8 and were destroyed at the same time, so I can summon something that _causes _disasters!"

A _very _large, dark hole appeared behind Antoine, and the sound of a train rushing forward came from it. Then he saw a light from the center…

It was clearly a locomotive's headlight, but it didn't look like a modern electric light or an old-fashioned gaslight… It was a threatening flame that reminded him of the fires of hell…

"So let's all have it up for the groovy, funky master of disaster, the loco locomotive with the Devil at the wheel… _The Infernal Train!_"

The _thing _that rushed out of the portal even gave Fanciullo pause. If one could imagine an old cathedral built in the shape of a train, with the overall design given a demonic theme and the entire thing shrouded in fire, well, then one might have the best description.

Of course, if one were to ask Fanciullo, he would say that this monster simply _defied _description.

"You think _that's _the train where the Devil is the engineer?" he asked, nervously. "I beg to differ fellah, that train _is _the Devil!"

"Flattery will get you nowhere, kid," chuckled Antoine. "First of all, my monster is higher than Level 8, so…

He made a draw.

"…and by the way, my train's got the same Attack and Defense Points as the strongest Machine in my Graveyard right now, so with Hindenburg there, that's two grand and nine C's."

(2,900 ATK)

"All right, all right…" said Fanciullo. "Let's see here…"

The three cards he had drawn couldn't make Gilford strong enough to defeat it… But…

"Since it's obvious I have to hold off on attacking this turn anyway," he said, "I'll use Pot of Dichotomy."

He used the card, and a weird jar rose above him, slowly turning around. One side looked like the Pot of Avarice, the other like the Pot of Benevolence.

"I have to take three monsters from my Graveyard of different Types, then send them back to my deck, and reshuffle… Then, much like Pot of Avarice, I draw twice."

Toy Magician, Toy Knight, and Toy Plane came out of his discard slot, and he pushed the three cards into his deck. The auto-shuffler shifted the cards, and he made two draws.

"I'll end with three face-down cards," he said.

_And then hope for the best… _he continued, as cards formed behind Gilford.

Then Gilford groaned, clutching his chest as he lowered his weapon a little.

"Gilford?" shouted Fanciullo. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," chuckled Antoine, clearly not sorry at all. "Got a tummy ache? Well, get used to it, because the Infernal Train has that effect… Each time a player ends his turn, his monsters lose 600 points."

(2,200 ATK)

"It's one of those things that can rot and corrupt life with its mere presence…" gasped Fanciullo, just looking at it. "Where did this card come from?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," replied Antoine. "So…"

He made a draw, and then pointed at Gilford.

"Time to hit the road, jack! Attack that prep with Blazing Demon Steam!"

The engine started to rattle and hiss, and the front turned red hot. Finally, burning steam cascaded from the front of the horrid locomotive towards Gilford.

"As grateful as we are for the sauna," said Fanciullo, with a snarky look, "we have to decline… I use Bye-Bye Damage!"

"What the…" said Antione, as the Trap lifted. "OH fooey!"

The steam blaze turned around in mid-air, ramming into Antoine and knocking him on his back.

**(F: 5,050) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 5,700)**

"This card not only protects _my _monster, it sends the damage back to you and doubles it," said the mobster. "Uh, that outfit of yours _is _machine washable, right?"

Antoine got up, and cursed under his breath.

"You think you're hot stuff, dontcha?" he said.

"I'm 'hotter' than some, uh… jive turkey like you," replied Fanciullo.

The incredible look on Antoine's face showing that he had been sorely offended was proof enough to him that it was the right term. It had taken him awhile to bring the slang that this guy was using to the front of his mind, but if there was one thing he was, it was patient. Indeed, calling someone a "jive turkey" was a pretty low blow back in the 70's.

"I'll set a monster and this other card," he hissed, playing the cards, "and I'm done…"

_Okay… _thought Fanciullo, making a draw. _That crazy train has 2,900 points, my monster has 2,200… This is going to be cutting it close, but…_

"I'm using the Big Bang Shot Equip Spell," he said.

He fit the card in his Disk, and Gilford grunted, raising his sword again. (2,600 ATK)

"Is he gonna attack, or is he constipated?" asked Antoine.

"Shut up," he replied. "I summon Rocket Warrior."

As he played the card, a missile streaked in front of him, then upwards, then started to land, transforming into a cute-looking robot with a shield and sword. (1,500 ATK)

"You some sort of Katsuya Jonouchi fanboy, kid?" asked Antoine.

"I'll show you…" said Fanciullo. "Invincible charge!"

Rocket Warrior turned back into a rocket, then blasted towards the front of the train, hitting it right above the cowcatcher in a slam the shook the whole yard.

Rocket Warrior landed back on his side, and smoke started to rise from a very big dent made in the front of the Infernal Train. (2,400 ATK)

"Bogus!" shouted Antoine.

"Wreck that train, Gilford!" shouted Fanciullo.

The Warrior lifted his weapon and leapt at the giant Machine. Then Fanciullo saw the glint in Antoine's eyes, through the sunglasses.

_Hell… _he thought, as the Trap lifted up.

"I use Prideful Roar!" shouted Antoine. "Oh yeah! It just cost me 300 Life Points now, but…"

The Train let out a fierce bellow, its score rising to its full 2,900. Gilford struggled a little, but then the steam from the engine vaporized him, literally.

**(F: 4,750) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 5,400)**

"I'm on _fire!" _laughed Antoine.

"So you are…" muttered Fanciullo.

"You know why people call something a 'train wreck' if they think it's a really big disaster, kid?" asked Antoine. "Because it takes a really, _really _big disaster to wreck a train. Seriously, trains are _tough. _They don't derail very easily.

"In fact, if you wanted to _intentionally _wreck a train, trying to stand up to the train itself is just gonna get you run over. You'd have to do something like blow up a bridge in front of it to get anywhere."

"You don't say…" replied Fanciullo.

He looked at the huge monster. He hated to admit, but that was true. He remembered how kids used to put coins, or chains, or old keys on the railway tracks in train yards years ago… Whatever you put on the track became flatter than a pancake.

_I'm not even sure if Superman could prove more powerful than _THAT _locomotive in a one-on-one brawl, _he thought.

"Take… your… turn…"

"Don't forget kid," responded the thug, "that little guy loses 600 points now…"

Fanciullo made a slight sideways glance at Rocket Warrior. (900 ATK)

Antoine made a draw, and then used a card. A monster appeared, a large boxcar with an ugly demon's face. (500 ATK)

"Now that my Bokoichi is here, I'll flip my Dekoichi," he said.

His reversed monster flipped, and another fiendish locomotive, though dwarfed by the one next to it, strolled onto his side. (1,400 ATK)

"Now I can draw once," he said, as he drew, "then once again, cause I have Bokoichi…"

He made another draw. Steam started to pour from the Infernal Train's hellish engine.

"You wanted to fight kid?" he said. "My train has 300 kilos of horsepower, and I'm using them! Dekoichi, run his Rocket Warrior over!"

The Battlechanted Locomotive rushed at the Warrior like, well, a locomotive, then smashed him to little bits. Still, Fanciullo said nothing.

"Attack him directly!" ordered Antoine.

"NO!" screamed the girl next to him.

He didn't even look at her. The horrible blast of scalding steam blasted at Fanciullo, and the wave of heat covered the entire train yard.

The girl started to cry a little, and Antoine lowered his glasses a little to look through the haze.

"Something's not jack here…" he thought. "What…"

The steam quickly parted…

**(F: 1,250) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 5,400)**

Fanciullo was still standing there, looking at him… As if nothing had happened.

"What?" he asked.

Even the Infernal Train seemed a little nervous now…

"Did you expect anything different?" asked Fanciullo. "The idea is to reduce your opponent to zero Life Points, I believe…"

"What the devil are you made of?" said Antoine, slowly.

"None of your damn business," replied his opponent. "So…"

"Bokoichi, attack!" shouted Antoine.

A spinning blade of shrapnel shot from the boxcar, striking Fanciullo. Not that he cared.

**(F: 750) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 5,400)**

"You're almost funny," said Fanciullo with a slight smile. "Of course, I thought the prosecutor's case against Fortissimo Lamont was hilarious too. Never laughed so hard in my life…"

"Now I'm angry kid…" said Antoine. "It's your turn…"

Fanciullo looked at the young girl as he made a draw. He was starting to get the feeling that this meant something… What, he didn't know, but it was _something…_

"Those two guys didn't seem to lose any points," he said. "There any particular reason why the phrase 'all monsters' doesn't apply to them?"

"I said 'all living things'," replied Antoine. "Machines ain't alive."

"Ah, yes, a loophole to protect your own monsters, interesting…" replied Fanciullo. "Well… I don't usually do this for just any duel… but… I think this is a special occasion…"

One of his Traps turned up, then around.

"I'll use Reckless Greed to draw twice… I have to skip two Draw Phases, but hopefully it will pay of…"

He drew two, then made a small nod.

"I use Level Modulation!" he exclaimed, using one of them. "You draw twice, but I can bring back Silent Swordsman. Return!"

The ground cracked, and the Swordsman burst through, sword-first. (2,300 ATK)

"Big whoop," said Antoine. He made two draws. "He can't touch me!"

"I know how my own cards work," replied Fanciullo. "Maybe _he _can't attack because of that Spell's drawback… But if I play Level Up, then I can turn him into someone who can!"

The Spell Card appeared, and Silent Swordsman's features turned sharper, his cloak lengthening, and his sword becoming even larger with a glimmering shine. About a foot was added to his height along with two Levels. (2,800 ATK)

"I know what you're thinking, fellah, Silent Swordsman LV7 is still not strong enough, and because he nullifies all Spell Cards, it's hard to _make_ him strong enough.

"Of course, if I _don't _attack your train right now, Swordsman will fall to 2,300 Attack Points on the end of my turn and I'll be in trouble, a sort of catch-22 there.

"But… I can beat that thing by taking a different route. I was listening to you a minute ago, and what you said rings true. Attacking a train in a frontal assault won't get anywhere… But like you also said, it can be destroyed more easily by attacking the rails… Or its power source."

"Say what?" asked Antoine.

"Know how Kaiba defeated his no-good stepfather's Exodia Necross?" asked Fanciullo. "He had no luck attacking its body, so he tried attacking its soul…"

"Machines don't got souls!" shouted Antoine.

"Wow," chuckled Fanciullo. "Bad style _and _bad grammar… Attack Bokoichi Silent Swordsman!"

The attack came so sudden and so fast that Antione literally yelped, falling over as the boxcar was sliced in half by Swordsman's blade.

**(F: 750) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 3,100)**

"That was a cheap shot kid!" he cursed.

"Your point being?" asked the mobster. "I'll set two more cards, and then you're up."

He fit two cards into his Disk, and they appeared behind Silent Swordsman. Swordsman himself groaned a little, his Score falling to 2,200. Then both he _and _Fanciullo looked at the young girl.

Why she was still there, he had no idea, but he was going to find out if it killed him. He just hoped that didn't happen.

"You're goin' down, squirt," said Antoine, drawing. "I'll sacrifice Dekoichi to summon the Mad Mechanic!"

The Battlechanted Locomotive disappeared, yielding to a bizarre and _very _ugly demon. It was certainly a mechanic… Right down to the dirty overalls and battered hat. Of course, its exposed skin was green and scaly and covered with sores and lesions that suggested some horrid skin disease, although, given how much it was giggling, that didn't seem to bother it much. It had a bandoleer with wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, and unidentifiable tools, and an oversized tire iron that it waved like a club. (1,800 ATK)

"When I summon _this _monster, I get to choose one machine," he said, "and that machine can't be destroyed."

"Not by _anything?" _replied Fanciullo.

"That's right, not by anything!" replied the thug. "Nothing's gonna junk this Train so long as he lives. So… Waste his Swordsman, Infernal Train! GO!"

"Heh…" said Fanciullo. "Ordered an attack, did ya? Can't take it back…"

As the locomotive started to heat up again, one of his Traps lifted up.

"This is what I mean by 'attacking its soul', nimrod, a Trap called The Transmigration Prophecy. I may not be able to win by attacking that thing directly, but those Machines in your Graveyard are what makes it powerful, and _they're _vulnerable.

"So I'll send Supercolossal Unsinkable Superliner – Elegant Titanic and Supercolossal Airship – Giant Hindenburg back to your deck…"

"Wait a minute…" replied Antoine.

His face turned ghost white. Then his deck shuffled.

"That means the strongest Machine in your Graveyard right now is Dekoichi," continued Fanciullo, "which means…"

The Infernal Train plummeted to only 1,400 Attack Points. As the wave of steam hit Silent Swordsman, he simply plowed through it, striking the front of the train _hard, _leaving a giant scar on it, and knocking Antoine on his derriere.

**(F: 750) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 2,400)**

"You little…" he said. "Gah… I end my turn!"

Then the Mad Mechanic shouted and fell on one knee, clutching his chest.

"What's wrong, daddy-o?" quipped Antoine, looking up.

"What do you think?" asked Fanciullo. "He's not a Machine, so now he loses 600 Attack Points from Infernal Train's effect.

(1,200 ATK)

"That's truly ironic, you know… You said nothing would 'junk' that Train so long as he lived, but apparently, that devotion wasn't reciprocated.

"My turn now… I can't draw because of Reckless Greed, but… I use Call of the Haunted!"

The Trap flipped up, and a coffin rose to the surface under it. Then it shattered to pieces, Gilford springing out again. (2,800 ATK)

"Back from the dead, and now with an ally… Let's give this once more with feeling! Silent Swordsman, vanquish his Mad Mechanic!"

The Fiend shrieked and dropped the tire iron, but barely got one step before Swordsman struck, and the huge blade cut him in half. Antoine shrieked louder.

"Time to derail that mess…" he said. "Gilford, destroy his Infernal Train!"

Gilford rushed, leapt, and then formed a blur, running past the Infernal Train… The whole contraption shuddered from the cut down the middle…

You could barely even hear Antoine's scream as the thing erupted from the inside.

**(F: 750) - - - - - - - - - - (A: 0)**

The fires died down, and the Disco duelist sat up. He was seeing red.

"You wicked little boy…" he cursed. "I'm gonna…"

"Mr. Fanciullo!" shouted Uomo's voice.

Fanciullo turned to see his three henchmen running from where he had come from. Amare was holding a revolver now, likely having discarded the assault rifle when it ran out of ammunition rather than pause to reload. Uccisore was helping Tormento walk, a nasty wound in his thigh making that difficult. Other than that, he and Uccisore had a few bruises, and the clothes on all three of them were torn and dirty.

"What…" he said.

"Nothing a little iodine and spit won't fix," said Tormento. "I'll be fine…"

"We're a lot better off than _they _are, Mr. Fanciullo," said Uccisore, "but…"

Antoine turned white. Even whiter than he previously had.

"Fanciullo?" he stammered. "Cattivo… Fanciullo?"

The mob boss nodded, and crossed his arms.

"So, uh…" he said. "What were you saying just now?"

Antoine gulped…

"Err… uhm…" he said. "Bye!"

Then he ran the other way. Uomo pointed the revolver

"Boss, you want me to…" said Amare.

He lifted his weapon, but Fanciullo raised his hand with a tired look.

"Don't waste your bullets, he's not worth it," he replied.

He walked up to the young girl, who hadn't left the spot on the ground where Antoine had thrown her the whole time.

"Are you…" he said.

Then to his shock, she got up, and shoved something into his hands.

"What?" he said.

"Don't let them get it!" she shouted. "Whatever you do, don't let them take it from you! Please!"

Then she started to run in the other direction, incredibly fast.

"HEY!" he shouted.

It was too late. She was gone.

He looked at what she had given him. An old-looking, leather-bound book, with a locked clasp holding it shut. Strange runes were written on the cover, a language he couldn't read or recognize. He tried opening the clasp, but as he expected, it didn't open.

"What is it?" asked Uccisore.

"I'll tell you what it is," replied Fanciullo. "This is the Man Upstairs' way of telling us it's gonna be one of those weeks."

They were startled by the sound of sirens, only a few blocks away.

"_Copa dosta!_" shouted Uccisore. "Lovely, _now _the police decide to show up!"

"And unless you goons want to deal with _them _too, come on!" replied Fanciullo. "Is _this _place warded?"

Uomo shook his head, then tapped the watch-device, and the silvery orb appeared again, slowly turning into the portal back to Florence.

_This book could be nothing more than some cookbook on orcish salads… _thought the Shadow mobster. _But it may be something important… Well… Hopefully Dominare can figure it out…_

The four of them leapt through, and it closed behind them.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**COMMAND SILENCER (Spell Card)**

**Quickplay Spell**

**Image: **A colorful Totem Pole with stereo speakers on the sides.

**Effect: **Activate when a monster declares an attack. Negate the attack and draw 1 card.

_Note: "Command Silencer" was first used by Kaiba in the original anime episode "Clash in the Colosseum". _

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**GUARD OFF (Trap Card)**

**Normal Trap**

**Image: **Big Shield Gardna, Mid Shield Gardna, and Total Defense Shogun pictured in the same position they were in on "Defenders' Mind", but from a different angle (possibly suggesting a continuation of that scene).

**Effect: **The DEF of all face-up monsters become zero; then, inflict 400 points of damage to your opponent for each monster you control with a DEF of zero.

_Note: "Guard Off" was first used by Vector in the "Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal" episode #136. _

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**SUPERCOLOSSAL UNSINKABLE SUPERLINER ELEGANT TITANIC (Monster Card)**

**Machine/Water/Effect/Lvl10/2,800ATK/2,000DEF**

**Effect: **Once per turn, you can target an opposing face-up Monster with zero DEF. Destroy that Monster, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to half the destroyed Monster's base ATK.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**SUPERCOLOSSAL AIRSHIP GIANT HINDENBURG (Monster Card)**

**Machine/Water/Effect/Lvl10/2,900ATK/2,000DEF**

**Effect: **When a Level 5 or higher Monster is Normal Summoned, switch all Attack Position Level 9 or lower Monsters on the field to face-up Defense Position.

_Note: The two Supercolossal monsters were first used by Umimi and Tobio in the multi-part _Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal _episode "An Imperfect Couple". _

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**TOY BOX (Spell Card)**

**Normal Spell**

**Image: **A cubical toy box with arms and a happy, smiling face in the front, throwing toys into its top.

**Effect: **Select 2 Level 4 or lower monsters in your hand and/or your side of the field and banish them, then Special Summon a "Toy Box Token" (Machine/Light/Lvl1/0ATK/0DEF). A "Toy Box Token" cannot be targeted for an attack, cannot attack, and is not effected by Spell Cards. If a player controls no monsters except a "Toy Box Token", his opponent may attack directly. Once per turn (during your or your opponent's turn and starting the turn this card is activated) you may Special Summon a monster that was banished via this effect. If all monsters banished by this effect are Special Summoned, destroy the "Toy Box Token".

_Note: "Toy Box" was first used by Yugi in the _Yu-Gi-Oh R _manga. _

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**DECAGO KNIGHT (Monster Card)**

**Warrior/Light/Effect/Lvl10/1,000ATK/1,000DEF**

**Effect: **When there are 3 copies of "Decago Knight" in your Graveyard, you may shuffle them into your deck.

_Note: "Decago Knight" was first used by Clark in the _Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds _episode 116. _

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**ILLEGAL SUMMON (Spell Card)**

**Normal Spell**

**Image: **A young man in a kimono riding a giant toad. (This is a reference to "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya" and also to the anime _Naruto, _which is based on that story.)

**Effect:** Each player selects 1 monster from their respective decks; the selected monsters are Special Summoned to the sides of the field opposite that of each monster's owner. (The battle position of each monster is decided by the controller of the side of the field it is summoned to.)

_Note: "Illegal Summon" was first used by Mathmatica in the _Yu-Gi-Oh GX _episode "Pro Dueling". _

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**TITAN'S CHARITY (Spell Card)**

**Continuous Spell**

**Image: **Ancient Gear Golem kneeling down and handing a bouquet of wildflowers to The Unhappy Maiden.

**Effect: **When a Level 8 or higher monster is Special Summoned, the monster's controller draws 1 card.

_This card was designed by Metal Overlord 2.0._

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**RUINOUS OMEN**_** (Spell Card)**_

_**Quickplay Spell**_

_**Image: **__The shadowy form of The Infernal Train rushing through the remains of a forest that has been destroyed by fire. The sky above is blood-red. _

_**Effect: **__Activate when 2 (exactly) Level 8 or higher Machine-Type Monsters you control are destroyed at the same time. Special Summon 1 "The Infernal Train" from your hand or deck._

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**DEVOTED DEFENDER (Spell Card)**

**Quickplay Spell**

**Image: **Marauding Captain rushing to throw himself in the path of an armor flying towards Forsaken Maiden.

**Effect: **Activate when one of your Attack Position monsters is selected as a target for the effect of a Spell, Trap, or Effect Monster. Pay 1,000 Life Points to negate that effect. If this card would be countered or negated, you may banish 1 "Forbidden" Spell Card from your Graveyard; if you do, this card cannot be countered or negated.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**THE INFERNAL TRAIN (Monster Card)**

**Machine/Dark/Effect/Lvl10/?ATK/?DEF**

**Effect: **Cannot be Normal Summoned or set. Can only be Special Summoned via the effect of "Ruinous Omen" and cannot be Special Summoned any other ways. The ATK and DEF of this card are both equal to the ATK of the Machine-Type monster in your Graveyard with the highest ATK. During each player's End Phase, every face-up non-Machine-Type monster the turn player controls loses 500 Attack Points if in Attack Position or 500 Defense Points if in Defense Position. If a monster's ATK or DEF is reduced to zero by this effect, it is destroyed.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**MAD MECHANIC (Monster Card)**

**Fiend/Dark/Effect/Lvl5/1,800ATK/400DEF**

**Effect: **When this card is Normal Summoned, select 1 face-up Machine-Type monster. So long as this card remains on the field, the selected monster cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**TOY BOAT (Monster Card)**

**Machine/Light/Effect/Lvl4/1,000ATK/1,000DEF**

**Effect: **If you Special Summon this banished card and you do not control a "Toy Car", you may Special Summon 1 "Toy Car" from your hand or deck. This card may not be used as Xyz Material for an Xyz Summon.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**TOY CAR (Monster Card)**

**Machine/Light/Effect/Lvl4/800ATK/1,200DEF**

**Effect: **If you Special Summon this banished card and you do not control a "Toy Boat", you may Special Summon 1 "Toy Boat" from your hand or deck. This card may not be used as Xyz Material for an Xyz Summon.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**TOY PLANE (Monster Card)**

**Machine/Light/Effect/Lvl5/1,500ATK/1,800DEF**

**Effect: **You may Special Summon this card (from your hand) if you control a "Toy Boat" and "Toy Car". If this card and a "Toy Car" or a "Toy Boat" are used as Tributes for a Tribute Summon of 1 monster, draw 2 cards. If this card and BOTH a "Toy Boat" and a "Toy Car" are used for a Tribute Summon of 1 monster, draw 3 cards.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Jemorille: Mobsters like Fanciullo often consider themselves businessmen. The business they're in, just happens to be crime. Like all businesses, it has risks in investments, and unexpected opportunities come up when you least expect them. You have to decide on the spur of the moment whether taking advantage of one will be worth it.**_

_**The difference is, a risk that doesn't pay off may have **_**deadly **_**consequences.**_

_**Fanciullo had just survived taking a risk that did not pay off, which had actually been an ambush from a liar who had told him to meet for a deal. Now, a girl had simply shoved a book into his arms and pleaded with him to take it. It seemed to be even more of a risk. **_

_**Why did he take it? He'd later realize that even he didn't know. **_

_**Next chapter, there's some catching up to do, as some old faces return, and some new ones are introduced. **_

_**It might all seem strange at first, but it may make sense later… Well, it may.**_

"_**Both Sides Now" is coming soon. **_

_****__****__**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**Shadowchaser Files: Sites of Power**

**The Azure Vale**

Few remember the cruel Mongolian warlord Mana Su. When famed conqueror Genghis Khan united the Mongol tribes, Mana Su was executed, as were his advisors and the officers or his army, and all records of his deeds and accomplishments were destroyed – most of them. Mana Su was a man believed to have demon blood, and his cruelty may well have been without limit. The Azure Vale, located in a remote corner of the Dornod province, is one remnant of his atrocities.

The large town of Faenish-Kul once stood on this site. At the height of Mana Su's campaign, he raided and sacked this town, captured every one of the townsfolk – every man, woman, and child – and gave one to each of his soldiers. He commanded each soldier to execute his prisoner on his order.

On that day, five-thousand innocents were murdered, all at the same instant. Why did Mana Su do this? For no reason other than to prove he could.

His eventual death at the hands of Genghis Khan's hordes was… Unpleasant. Still, the Vale remains, and few come to the place now. No structures still stand, and the only plant life is dead trees, briars, and weeds. When one walks through the place, sad moans, angry howls, and foul curses can be heard in the chilling wind. You would swear the place is haunted, and it is.

This is just what those who come here during daylight experience. Those foolish enough to be here at night risk attack by the restless spirits of Mana Su's victims. While most experts on hauntings know that it's possible to appease a spirit and lay it to rest, none of these experts have been brave enough – or stupid enough – to attempt to deal with five thousand angry ghosts who lash out at anything that moves once the sun goes down. (Plenty of amateur ghost hunters have tried it; judging from the expressions on the faces of their corpses that are usually found the next morning when such people try, they never accomplish much.)

Still, there is one reason some dare come here during daylight hours. Legend says a powerful unholy weapon called _Soulbiter, _was left that fateful night. A scimitar forged in the Abyss, myths surrounding it say that the army of a general who holds it would be unstoppable. Why was such a weapon left behind? Supposedly, a condition that Mana Su could not meet was needed to activate its full potential, and he discarded it here once he realized that, believing it worthless to him.

If he _could _have figured out how to use it, it may well have been him, not Khan, who united the Mongols. A frightening thought indeed, for as cruel and merciless as Khan was, historians shudder to think what may have happened if other towns had met the same fate as the Azure Vale.


	6. Both Sides Now

_**Why do so many people believe that the Groom Lake Air Force Base (aka Area 51) is hiding some dark secret about an alien landing that the U.S. government won't tell Americans about?**_

_**Well, many reasons, but for one thing, the U.S. military does indeed have a strategy on file for combating an alien invasion. Several, in fact. These plans are not kept in Area 51 – they're at the Pentagon – and none of the generals who drew them up had ever seen an alien. They just figured it was best for the army to be prepared in case it ever happened.**_

_**Sound farfetched? The Pentagon also has plans in case a virus causes a zombie apocalypse (they never asked the Shadowchasers for advice, seeing as they don't believe zombies exist) and plans for a counter-attack if the Girl Scouts were to form a united resistance against the government. Among other things.**_

_**Not that they ever believed those sort of things would happen, they just want to be prepared for unusual enemies, and it isn't just America. If a general were to be confronted about the Army's plans in case circus performers and clowns (for instance) became violently militant and formed a rebellion, and asked what the chances are of it actually happening, he'd probably answer, "Unlikely, but then, what are the chances of a person actually winning the state Powerball jackpot?" If you had actually bought a ticket for that lottery (or did so regularly), you'd probably shut up right there.**_

_**But who pays for them to be so prepared? Your tax dollars at work. Citizens are not fond of "earmarks" in bills (or "pork spending" as they are often called), which are subsidies given to special interest groups added as riders to bills in exchange for campaign support. These put aside tax money for questionable – and at times, worthless – activities. As more and more taxpayers were made aware of them over the years, more have checked the bills that are approved by the government closer, and all-too often, things like this are leaked.**_

_**And some people take them too seriously. A rumor grows widespread, grows out of control, and then people start believing that the military actually has legitimate reasons to prepare for these threats.**_

_**The truth is, sometimes it pays to be prepared. As Stormbringer can tell you, one never knows what might happen…**_

**0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Both Sides Now**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

Two hours earlier, back in Green Bay.

In a vacant lot, a familiar-looking portal opened, and a tall, unsmiling, muscular, bearded man stepped out. He was wearing a wool jacket, leather boots, and a kilt, of all things.

Still, the cold didn't bother Douglas Bowmaker as much as the sudden change of the sun's position did. He was tough, but a seven-hour shift on the clock was distorting to anyone.

He grumbled, and then walked towards the main street. Then he heard a ringing noise accompanied by a slight vibrating on his arm.

"What in…" he said, not immediately recognizing it. "Oh, right…"

He lifted his Duel Disk on his arm, then tapped the area on the top of the Extra Deck chamber.

_This will take some gettin' used to… _he thought.

"You there, Douglas?" asked Jalal's voice.

"Yeah, as best as 'here' can be," replied the bulky Scotsman. "This town doesn't look all too inviting…"

"No-one ever said this job would be a walk in the park, Douglas," replied the leader of the Shadowchasers, "but this may be a big deal. Clement McMahan was a tulgar berserker, and whoever this guy was who killed him did it _with his bare hands."_

"In other words, this guy's very strong," replied Douglas.

"Yes, and the witnesses say he bent a shotgun into a horseshoe," replied Jalal. "And speaking of the witnesses, they were able to give a pretty vivid description, and the police even got some fingerprints, but no-one has been able to identify this guy yet. We can only assume he's new blood."

"So ya need me to check around?" replied Douglas. "Well, ahm a fast learner… Let's see here…"

He looked at the description on the strip of paper he had copied the notes down on: _About six-foot-four, very muscular, long, shaggy, red hair, a strong chin, wearing an overcoat, no shirt, jeans, a belt with a large buckle, and steel-toed work boots._

"Kinda the guy who'd stand out in a crowd," he said. "So just who would want to kill this McMahan fellah?"

"Word is you had to get in line if you wanted to do that," replied Jalal. "He was a mobster, and not the type to adhere to tradition."

"Lovely…" muttered Douglas. "_That _sort of job. I'll check back in a couple'a hours."

He turned it off.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

In a quaint manor house in Boston, steam, the sound of boiling water, and tasty smells came from the kitchen.

A young woman with long, dark hair was cutting potatoes on a cutting board as a large saucepan simmered on the stove at a low boil. She wiped her brow, then slowly stirred the potatoes into the mixture along with diced onions and green peppers. She continued to stir for a minute.

Ophelia stopped, then looked at the stuff, then tasted it. She grunted a little and held her hand over her eyes. Small black motes of magical energy danced around her ears as they grew into diabolic points.

The opened her eyes, which had turned blood red, with fiendish pupils. Then she shrugged and started stirring again. Dante walked in and sniffed the air.

"I take it you're making your shadar-kai-style ciambotta?" asked the other Shadowchaser.

"Uh huh," she replied. "Can you hand me the salt?"

Dante shook his head, and reached for the shaker.

"You really didn't have to go all out," he said. "Karen would have been happy if we had ordered Chinese take-out."

"Yeah, well, she's worked so hard these last few months," replied Ophelia, "and she doesn't come home every day… And it's not too often she brings Wells with her."

"Trust me on this," he said, with a slight smile, "Wells is _completely _human, and I'm sure almost everything you've heard about him is exaggerated.

"Well, I'm _mostly _sure."

"Hand me the oregano and that jar of things that look like garlic cloves," she said, pointing to the spice rack.

_I'm not even gonna ask what they are, _he thought, as he reached for them.

In the other room, Jeb was at work on something else, not something Shadowchasers related, but an article he was writing for _The Boston Globe, _one which was due in thirty-six hours. (His editor there was _much _harder to deal with than Jalal was.)

"_A kid I was working with came to me the other day," _he wrote, _"and told me that the book his teacher had assigned, Hemmingway's _The Sun Also Rises_, was long and boring, and wondered why such stuff is still relevant._

"_Now, I'm not going to argue here about the relevance of Hemmingway's work. (I'll admit his books are a little dull.) I've seen a lot of kids complain about the books they've been assigned, like _The Scarlet Letter _and_ Moby Dick,_ and at the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon (especially since I'm only 38 years old) I think kids don't realize it could have been worse._

"_I mean, take _War and Peace,_ for example. I've never met anyone who admits he's actually read this book that is notorious for being long and boring, and I'll admit I haven't either. A lot of folks make jokes about it, and wonder what Tolstoy was thinking._

"_Well, actually, he had a _very _good reason. In 19__th__ Century Russia, authors like __Tolstoy and Dostoevsky __were paid by the page, so you can't blame them. _War and Peace_ was only the most well-known one. _Crime and Punishment_ and_ The Brothers Karamazov_ were both well over 500 pages in most editions (and in a few, over a thousand). In Tolstoy's defense, books like this were published in serial installments at the time, so he never really expected anyone to read the _entire _book at once._

"_A lot of students claim that Hemmingway isn't very descriptive, and he doesn't use much detail. They're missing the point, of course, but they should have seen Victor Hugo's original text of __Les Misérables __(a book that is often called "the Brick" by some scholars). To put this simply, Hugo had the __opposite__ problem. In one scene, a page and a half is devoted to describing a crack in the wall that a character looks through. (And that's the __abridged __version.) In the original version, Hugo spends about fifty pages in the beginning describing a picnic with Fantine and her friends, which has no bearing on the plot at all. There's also a fifty page essay in the book about the Battle of Waterloo. This does have some small relation to the plot, which he tells you about on the fiftieth page._

_"If you've ever read __The Count of Monte Cristo, __I'm willing to bet any amount of money you read an abridged version. The most complete movie adaptation of that book was eight hours long, and it still cut a lot of stuff out. There was also an anime version, which consisted of 26 half-hour episodes; if you remove commercials, opening credits, and end credits, it lasted about eleven hours. Still, incomplete. The original manuscript by Alexandre Dumas was one where he was paid by the word, and was published as a serial one chapter at a time in a newspaper. How long was it, total? Don't ask. _

_"I'm almost afraid to mention the 12__th__ Century Tibetan epic cycle, __The Epic of King Gesar.__ To call this long was an understatement. There's no definitive text, and it's never been translated into English (if any scholars of Chinese literature are reading this, that was NOT a suggestion), but the closest that a Chinese compilation of it has come to its entirety has resulted in a work of over a million verses in 120 complete volumes. Simply reading this would likely take years. _

_"I could list more examples, but I'd risk being accused of the same thing. The point I'm getting to is, I find the complaints of teenagers these days ironic is because plenty of popular modern books are rather long too. The books in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series were each at least 500 pages long, and the fifth one more than 700. (Rowling had a little fun with this in one book, where Harry and Ron were shocked when Hermione considered books this size to be, in her words, "light reading".)_

_Still, Rowling had nothing on Steven King. His books were known to exceed a thousand pages. To give one example, the uncut version of _The Stand_ was 1,153 pages long. (A rather grim story told of how a woman in Holland sued a mail company after they delivered her copy of his book _IT_ and it actually killed her Chihuahua after it fell on the poor dog when it was dropped through her mail slot._ IT_ is 1,135 pages long.)_

He stopped for a minute and rubbed his chin.

"_Maybe _I'll leave that part out…" he said, hitting the backspace. "Don't want dog lovers to get the idea it was Mr. King's fault…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

In Liverpool, Jabels was handling that errand he had to do, which he was doing about once every two weeks, it seemed. Of course, he had an additional reason to be here this time.

Copek wasn't exactly a new company, but rather an expansion of a larger technology firm. New advances in robotics had made companies that experimented and sold the systems to military, defense, and law-enforcement firms a budding field. The manager of the place – Sylvester Addams, or "Sly" to his friends – claimed that mass-production of competent and efficient androids such as the Diablo army (just not as dangerous) could be a possibility in a few years.

The building was part factory and part engineering design shop, and there weren't all-too many employees in the first part – industrial robots worked on most of the models that were currently in the show room. As of right now, Jabels was waiting as the guy at the front desk he usually spoke to – Dunstan, if he had a first name, he didn't know it – typed his information into the computer.

"So, any trouble with it?" asked Jabels.

"Actually, it was a challenge…" replied Dunstan. "The government red tape has become more annoying than ever with imports like this… Do you realize they give you less grief when you want to ship grenades than they do some microchips? We should be glad this isn't Japan…

"Save… Print… Oh, crud… This isn't happening…"

"Printer giving you trouble?" asked Jabels.

"We installed a new system, and it's driving us crazy…" sighed Dunstan. "Uhm… If you could just wait outside… There's some coffee and donuts out there…"

Normally, Jabels wouldn't object, but… There was something in the main showroom outside the office that was making him nervous.

"Uhm, okay…" he said. "I'll…"

"Oh, don't mind 'him', he's harmless," replied Dunstan. "I'll tell you in a minute… Man, Mr. Addams can be obsessed sometimes…"

Speaking of which, the man in question was in his office down the hall, typing on his own PC. He seemed about fifty or so, his hair raven-black, with a neatly trimmed goatee. His suit was formal and clean, but rather old; he wasn't the type to splurge.

As he typed, the door flew open. "Mail call, sugar!" came a cheery voice.

"Emily, uh…" he said.

He turned around. His secretary's tanned skin, long, flaxen hair, and pointed ears that were unusually long even by elf standards marked her as a moon elf, but the outfit… _Really _not what most employers found appropriate for the workplace. The low-cut corset with rather unique accessories – a bow tie with matching collar and cuffs, fish-net leggings, and _velvet bunny ears with a matching tail_ made it obvious what inspired it.

"Mind if I ask why you're dressed like that?" he muttered, leaning his head on his hand.

"Like it?" she asked.

She turned around, as if to show him the whole thing.

"I thought it gave me the 'standing out look'."

"More like the 'copyright infringement look'," he muttered.

"You're no fun," she said with a pout. "The mail's here…"

She plopped down on the couch in the front of the office, then she started shifting thought it

"Phone bill, power bill, catalog… Ooh, letter with a Stamp of Delivery… From… the Green Bay City Morgue?"

"What the?" asked Addams. "Give me that…"

He stood up, took the letter and looked at it. Emily sat up.

"Certificate of death?" he said.

"Someone died now?" she asked. "Who died?"

"Well, start hoping it's someone we hate," he muttered. He ripped the envelope open with his index finger and started to read the document.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Chicago.

In a large penthouse apartment in uptown, a young African-American woman with a muscular build wearing jeans and a halter was leaning back on the couch, thumbing through a book. (It was a Robert Frost anthology, but she wasn't really reading it.)

Her face winced as she heard a large "OW!" in the other room.

"Where in the world…?" shouted the same voice.

_The man is going to give himself an ulcer one of these days, _she thought.

"Nichole, have you seen that receipt?" came the voice.

"Did you check your other pants?" she asked.

"Oh come on," he replied. "What makes you think it's in my…"

There was a long pause. She licked her thumb and turned the page.

A much older, bald man with a mustache walked out of the back room, holding a small slip of paper.

"My brother always says," said Nichole, "if you can't find something, nine out of ten times it's in your other pants. Now calm down!"

Dugan shook his head a little. He'd _like _to calm down, but he'd been very tense the last couple of days.

He slowed down a little, and walked into the next room. A small creature – about three feet tall – who with elf-like ears and a long nose in a brown suit was polishing the furniture and humming an old tune to himself:

"_In Ivy Town, where I was born, there was a fair maid dwellin'… She made every lad cry Well-a-Day… Her name was Barbara Ellen…"_

"Uh, Bartholomew…" said Dugan.

"That's my name," replied the brownie.

"Uh, this bakery your brother owns…" said Dugan.

He looked at the receipt. The address they had given him was, "ride facing the setting sun wearing a copper bracelet".

"It's in the Feywild, I assume?" he asked.

"Calm down…" replied the brownie. "I gave Francis _very _explicit instructions…"

"Bartholomew, you must admit, there are stories about… bad things happening to mortals who eat food from there," said Dugan.

"Well, sure, if you trespass on their property and _steal _it!" exclaimed Bartholomew. "I mean really, how would humans like it if _they _came here and stole _their _stuff?

"I guess, but…" replied Dugan.

"Well, trust me, they don't do that when you order from them and pay in advance," said Bartholomew. "Bad for business, you know?"

"Yeah, well, this had better be pretty good considering how much it cost…" muttered Dugan, looking at the slip again.

"Hey, for one week and three c-notes more, he could have made it ten times bigger and gotten a hamadryad maiden to jump out of it," replied Bartholomew. "Trust me, this is no treehouse full of Keebler Elves here, he's one of the best. His place once made a devil's food cake so rich they had to call in a priest to exorcise it."

Dugan looked at the diminutive fey closely. With these creatures, it was often hard to tell whether they were kidding or not.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"So what in the world _is _this?" asked Jabels.

The thing he was looking at, in the back of the show room, was a robot, about ten feet tall. A very nasty-looking one, with armor, spiked knuckles, and a face that _really _didn't look friendly. It was in a large display case the size of a large cabinet made of steel with a glass front.

"It's a dreadnaught," replied Dunstan. "You know how comic book super-villains create armies of robot soldiers that the good guys always reduce to piles of scrap? Well, the boss made a bet with some other bigwig that he could build one and, well, there it is."

"Does it work?" asked Jabels.

"Oh yeah," replied Dunstan. "Problem is, not even His Majesty's Army could afford to mass-produce them the way people like the guys in cartoons can. I have no idea how they do it."

Jabels was a little uncomfortable with the thing, and he knew that was easier than it seemed. After all, the warforged army might have been completely ineffective against the Hellfire Sentinel, but in the long run was probably not all _too_ much more expensive to use that a unit of human soldiers.

"Not exactly something that would attract customers,"he said.

"Well, we aren't a place that depends on walk-ins," said Dunstan, with a shrug. "Anyway, your order is all set, just put your John Hancock here, and here…"

"Oh… right…" said Jabels.

As he took the clipboard and gave it one final check, Addams was making a phone call in his office down the hall, searching his desk drawer for Tylenol at the same time.

"Come on, come on, pick up, stupid…" he said.

Emily was still on the couch, filing her nails. She stopped to watch him, then opened a small refrigerator next to the couch.

"Confound it…" he said under his breath, then hung up. Emily tossed him a bottle of Poland Spring underhand and he grabbed it out of the air.

"Thanks…" he said.

He opened it, and then swallowed the pills with about half the bottle.

"Emily, I need a favor…"

"Sure, sweetie," she said. "Want me to change?"

"Actually, the outfit is fine…" he said. "Uh, except for the heels…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Milwaukee.

A few blocks from the brewery district, a black car stopped in front of an old warehouse. The logo for the Miller Brewing Company was on the front, which made sense, as they owned the place, technically. Of course, this building was condemned, and the reason it had not been demolished for about ten years was due to some rather peculiar squatters.

Three men exited the car, each wearing long, dark coats and sunglasses. They quickly walked up to the front door, and one of the men knocked _once._

It opened a crack, and an eye peered out. Then it opened fully, and a huge, hulking man – actually a bugbear to those who could see – dressed in a rather formal suit looked at them.

"I'm here to see Miss Center of Attention," said the man in the front.

The doorman chuckled a little, then he opened the door a little wider. Another similarly-attired bugbear was with him.

"If you mean Rena, you know the drill, wise guy," said the first one. .

He rolled his eyes. He _really _hated this, but it wasn't like he had a choice. He lifted his arms up, and the doorman frisked him, not too gently.

Then he stepped inside, and the bugbear and his partner did the same with his two bodyguards. Then the first one said, "You're clear," and they went inside, the first man still grumbling with his hands in his pockets.

A light from above lit up the place. Five male dark elves in leather jackets and sunglasses, two of them holding assault rifles, were there.

Then they stepped aside, and a female in more traditional clothing for her species (which he often compared to that of some slave girl from a fantasy movie) came forward. She had a more traditional weapon too, a scimitar made of silvery metal.

"Glad you could make it Ray," she said, "and only half an hour late this time. What's the word on the assassin?"

"He's a member of a species we couldn't identify," replied Ray, "and he's still in Green Bay, probably."

"That's all?" she asked, turning her back to him.

"You told me to keep you informed, 'your holiness'," said Ray, sarcastically. "And look at me when I'm talking to you, okay?"

"I suggest you start finding out _positive _details and not _negative _ones, Ray," she said. "That's what we're being paid for, you know."

"Look, who put you in charge anyway?" asked Ray.

"Shroud did," she replied, turning to him with an angry look, "and don't you forget it."

Ray clenched his fist.

"Yeah, I know, Rena," he said, "and I wouldn't go along with it if she didn't make me… And I don't think you'd have the guts to boss me around either if she wasn't.

"One of these days, they're going to mention the name Ray S. Carr, and say, here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who…"

He stopped, as he realized that one of Rena's bodyguards was mouthing what he was saying, word for word. Both Rena and the rest of them giggled a little.

"I beg to differ, Ray," she replied. "You were born about a hundred years too late to be the type of mobster you wanted to be. The cops and the press call you eccentric… Everyone in the underworld, myself included,thinks you're a bat-shit crazy loon who's going to be hauled away in a rubber truck one of these days. If you don't wind up like Clem first. Oh, and speaking as someone who has been hearing Travis Bickle impressions since you were lying about your age to sneak into R-rated movies? That one was pretty bad."

Then even Ray's one of Ray's bodyguards started to chuckle a little, but he quickly clammed up when he turned to him with a frown.

"I ain't scared of you at all, pointy-ears," said Ray. "You think you're such hot stuff with that sword and your exhibitionist costume…"

Rena turned around, a look of fury in her eyes. The male dark elves started to tense, but she lifted her hand.

"Let him talk…" she said, slowly.

"Oh look, I'm the big, bad dark elf matron, high priestess of the Demon Queen of Spiders," he said in a mocking tone, "the one who buys her outfits at Fredericks of Hollywood!"

"You have some nerve, Ray," she said, putting her hand on her hip.

"What, you gonna threaten me with some voodoo curse?" he asked. "You're lucky you have those two shag rugs watching the door out there. I mean, I'd bet a hundred Samolians if I were to go to Hyrule or whatever place you came from with just _one _gun, I'd be ruling it within an hour."

"Morrowmind…" grumbled Rena.

"Beg pardon?" he asked.

"Dark elves were never used in _Legend of Zelda_ games, genius," she said, "a better location to compare to would be Morrowind in the _Elder Scroll_ games, but that's assuming you've ever played video games in your life."

"Heh, I always did love those games," one of the male dark elves said with a chuckle.

"Yeah we know Valys," she said, not turning around, "I've lost count of how many times I've seen you hunched over a console instead of doing the job you're, you know, being paid to do?"

Now it was the other of Ray's bodyguards who chuckled, though it turned into a cough pretty quickly when Valys shot him a look.

Rena looked Ray a moment before she smirked. "Okay hot-shot, you really think it would be that easy? Let's give it a try,"

She turned to Valys and said, "Gun…"

Valys quickly took the weapon from the holster at his hip and handed it to her. She checked the chamber, then closed it, then looked at Ray again.

"This is a Mateba Model 6 Unica semi-automatic revolver," she said. "I believe it's a pretty powerful handgun… After you shoot, the recoil itself rotates the cylinder and cocks the hammer, eliminating the need to for the shooter to do so himself, allowing for rapid-fire shooting, and it also uses high-caliber Smith & Weston .357 Magnum ammunition, regarded by many to be excellent.

"I take you knew that already. And by the way, it's loaded. So let's do some role playing, shall we? Let's put your theory to test…"

Then, to his shock, she grabbed his hand, and shoved the gun into it.

"Boss…" said one of Ray's henchmen.

"Here's the situation, Ray," she said. "You're the human who's just come through this hypothetical portal into a dark elf enclave onto, uh, 'Hyrule', you have that one gun you spoke of, and I'm the cruel, tyrannical matron with a reputation for enslaving and killing humans. The ones I'm merciful to, that is."

She drew her sword from her hip.

"So kill me if you can."

Ray was shocked to say the least. He fidgeted.

"Oh for the love of," she said, "look I don't have all day just pull the damn trigger. What do I have to do? Insult your mother, your clothing, the fact that your big mouth is probably an attempt to compensate for a dick the size of a toothpi…"

He fired.

She only smiled. A hideous smile. Then as she looked at him, something about her eyes changed…

Now they were cold, inhuman…

She was a _monster…_

"_Well?" _she asked, in a voice very, very different than it was a minute ago. _"Hesitating? Defend yourself you pathetic human!"_

Ray wasn't so confident now, and for a minute he thought the gun was loaded with blanks. There was no way he could have missed at that close a range. That assumption was debunked quickly when he fired again. The recoil proved had live ammo, but Rena didn't seem to even care.

"_Didn't hurt…" _she said.

Ray aimed higher, hoping a head shot would work, but again, she just grinned. Then she let out a horrid, evil cackle.

"_Not even close!" _she laughed.

Now he was _really _scared. He fired three more times in quick succession, but she laughed cruelly…

Then the gun clicked. That had been the last bullet. Then the gun flew from his hand as she swung her sword.

Then he screamed as she pressed it against his neck.

"_On your knees, worm…" _she ordered, in a voice that sounded even colder. He looked in her eyes. They were empty… Dark…Completely without any trace of humanity.

He fell to his knees. She hissed, and licked her lips slightly with her tongue. Then she looked him directly in the eye – with _her _eyes – and slowly started to press with the point. He was about to scream. Her smile turned hideous…

Then, all of a sudden, she withdrew the sword. She blinked, and her eyes were the same as they were before.

But, while the cruel, sadistic look was gone, she still looked pretty _annoyed. _She casually rested the sword on her shoulder.

"Game over…" she growled. "The reason your gun didn't hurt me Ray is because, like every smart spellcaster – which means all of them who are still alive – the first thing I do when I wake up is cast a Stone Skin on myself. It protects me from twelve physical blows, no matter _how _powerful they are.

"And even if I had given you the chance to reload that gun _twice, _I had other spells cast like Day of Protection, Hour of Power, and Mage Armor… And those are just the ones that _all _wizards know about. If all the spells that my apprentices are still learning failed, the advanced magic protection would come into play.

"You'd have had to get past _all _of them before you could have hurt me with that thing, and I doubt you have anything to deal with my _offensive _magic. Stand up, stupid!"

"Gah!" shouted Ray, as he stood up.

"Even if you entered the Homeworld of Shadow armed to the teeth, Ray," she continued, "and were in a place populated by folks that were short on magic, like say, goblins, you forget one important thing… In a world like that, a gun becomes a worthless piece of junk when you're out of ammunition. Where are you gonna buy bullets in a place where guns haven't been invented yet? You may be able to cut a path of destruction for a day or two, but once you ran out, your fate would depend mostly on just what sort of species was in charge of the local area. I tend to think if I really was the ruler of some dark elf enclave there, your end would be long, cruel, and_ very_ painful..."

"You… you were acting?" he stammered.

"No…" she said. "I was just letting you enjoy a display of my bad side, something I quickly learned to keep submerged after I ended up here. One thing I learned later… Humans have bad sides too, but most humans are _very _hard at hiding them, and they often act like _complete_ jackasses because of it.

"Consider yourself lucky you saw it and lived. Now we can either stop these stupid insults and start discussing things like civilized adults or I'm gonna slug you, is that clear?"

"C-clear!" stammered Ray. "Crystal clear!"

"Good," she replied. "Here…"

She held out her hand, and a bodyguard handed her a scroll. Then she threw it to him and he fumbled to catch it.

He slowly unrolled the scroll and read it.

"While you were doing nothing," she continued, "Oscar, one of the 'shag rugs' as you say, managed to get a lead on our mystery assassin. We'd check it out ourselves, but you know how we feel about the guys who hang out in that sort of place."

"I'm not too crazy about them either…" grumbled Ray.

"You can either do it or you can tell Red Shroud yourself," replied Rena. "I'm pretty sure _her _bad side is _much _worse than mine…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Back in Green Bay.

Several blocks from where Douglas' appeared, an eerie green smoke started to rise from the sewer grates. It quickly turned into a thick, vicious fog, coalescing into a man-sized shape.

Then it receded and disappeared, but something else had appeared. Emily was standing there, still dressed in her _very _risqué costume, plus sunglasses.

Oddly enough, the cold weather didn't seem to bother her either. She took a lipstick and compact from her purse, applied it, pursed her lips, and looked around.

Two muscular guys were up ahead, one with a blonde crew cut, jeans, and a t-shirt that likely hadn't been washed in weeks. The other was African-American, wore a tank top and jeans, and a Packers baseball cape.

She strode down in that direction, casually glancing towards them as she did. As she expected, they were both looking at her, or more accurately, specific parts of her. She smiled at them sweetly while slowly turning around. They walked up to her, and her grim widened.

"Hey," said one of them.

His arms slowly encircled around her waist. She kept the smile.

"Any truth to that old story about rabbits being good luck?" he asked.

"Mmm, you mean you want to get lucky, big guy?" she purred.

She lifted her hand and tickled his chin.

"Maybe… How'd you boys like to go for a sandwich?"

They were stunned to say the least. They hadn't expected _that _response. They knew what it meant, but they had never lucked out _this _much…

"Uh, really?" asked the first, starting to look around. He was looking to see if there was anyone around, wondering if she was a cop or something.

"Uh…"

"Yeah…" she said.

Then she suddenly wrenched free.

"Enjoy!" she laughed.

The next minute, her fist slammed into his mouth. Hard.

All of a sudden, he realized that when the word "sandwich" was used as a slang term, it could mean _several _things. He had assumed the wrong one.

"HEY!" shouted his friend.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Two minutes later, Emily looked at the first one, who was lying flat on the ground, and then the other, who she had stuffed in the trash can nearby.

She seductively bent over and then waved playfully, still smiling sweetly.

"Bye-bye!" she purred.

Then she strolled away, as the first one sat up with a groan. The other moaned too as the trash can fell over.

"Should we turn her in?" asked the first.

"You want to admit to the cops that a Playboy Bunny beat us up?" groaned the other.

"Good point," he replied.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_Falagar: It seemed this has taken an odd turn… On many levels…_

_A strange woman appearing just as an investigation into an equally strange assassin, just as odd things were starting to happen._

_Next chapter, the short lull is over, and it heats up again. Especially since Emily will be here to heat it up. So will Douglas, of course. What is this "favor" that Emily is supposed to do?_

"_Material Girl" is coming soon._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Shadowchaser Files: Artifacts**

**The Mask and Gloves of the Shadow Thief**

About five-hundred years ago in Japan, in the city that was then called Edo (now Tokyo), there lived a criminal called the Shadow Thief.

The Shadow Thief possessed a garment that covered his entire body, with strange magical properties. No-one knows how it was created, but by wearing it, the Shadow Thief could enter any shadow and emerge from another in any place he knew about or heard or read a description of. He could use this Shadow Suit, as he called it, to transport himself anywhere in Edo, or anywhere in Japan. (For all anyone knew, anywhere in the _world, _but he never had the chance to view such places.)

And he used this suit to steal. First he'd bribe merchants who had dealt with wealthy folks to gain descriptions of private homes, after which it would be easy to use the suit to sneak into the places and rob them. Even if he was discovered, he only had to dive through the nearest shadow to escape back to his lair, which nobody could find.

Eventually, he grew bold. He robbed landowners, nobles, and even the Emperor himself, going so far as to leave notes daring them to stop him.

The Emperor, of course, was furious, and he wasn't a fool. He quickly consulted his most trusted advisors, and devised a way to set a trap for the Shadow Thief.

First, out of a claim of generosity, he held a holiday where some of the most priceless jewels in the kingdom were put on display. He told his magistrates to purposely let it slip in every place where the criminal element could be located where the vault was in the Imperial Palace that these jewels would be stored.

Then, he secretly had the vault fixed. Engineers arranged the lighting carefully, so that the inside of the vault was brightly lit and there was only _one _shadow in the room, one place where the Shadow Thief could emerge. Then when the vault was locked for the night, three of his best soldiers armed with scimitars were inside standing guard, hidden behind pillars in the vault, watching that one spot.

The plan worked like a charm, and the Shadow Thief emerged, suspecting nothing. The three soldiers leapt in an ambush, beheading him and lopping off his arms.

What was left of him fell back through the shadow he had come from, leaving only three grisly trophies.

The Emperor's wise men studied the three parts of the Shadow Suit they had gained, the mask and the two sleeves with the gloves. It seemed that they still worked. To this day, by wearing one of the gloves, the wearer can reach his hand into a shadow and reach out another one, anywhere he has seen before or had described to him. The mask lets him do the same with his head, letting him spy on anywhere there's a shadow.

It was only a fraction of the power the whole suit possessed, but at seemed the career of the notorious Shadow Thief was over.

At least _this _one.

**Story Ideas:**

It's unclear where the three recovered parts of the Shadow Suit are currently. Most assume they're in a vault somewhere in Japan. But many who study the story notice one important aspect: The Shadow Thief's hidden lair was never found, nor was he identified.

For all anyone knows, the rest of the Suit may still be there, still clinging to his moldering bones. Should anyone ever find it, he might become rich from the vast wealth he stole, and could recover the rest of the suit, leaving open a possibility that a new Shadow Thief might be born.

A storyline involving the suit would likely involve the recovery, leading to an unsavory character obtaining the complete suit. Should this happen, he'd likely learn from the mistake of the original owner and not be so reckless. Such a device would be ideal for the villain who was determined to prove himself the greatest thief who ever lived (possibly on the same level of the protagonists of _Lupin II) _although, it's possible that someone not be satisfied with simply stealing, and use the suit as a hired gun.

The episode of _Teen Titans _"X" displays what might happen when a criminal who fancies himself a master thief comes into possession of this kind of power.


	7. Material Girl

_**There's an old rilmani proverb that says, "The tree that does not bend, breaks". **__**Such is the case of conspiracy theories that are spawned by celebrity sensations.**_

_**Lady Gaga was a slightly eccentric (okay, an **_**incredibly **_**eccentric) American pop singer who was a hit around the early 21**__**st**__** Century, and was the subject of rumors that seemed to come from rather sick minds. Some people claimed she was a "true hermaphrodite". (That means, someone who has both male and female sex organs, and they both work.) Now, because many people assume that hermaphrodites can be born out of incest, these people tended to think that she was**__** produced in an incestuous manner as part of a secret eugenics program funded by some group like the New World Order to create the next generation of entertainers.**_ _**(No, I'm not kidding. These people actually assume that the best pawn that an evil organization trying to take over the world could use was a spacy pop singer.)**_

_**Evidence against this are twofold and obvious. First, it's impossible among humans. (As any doctor will tell you.) Second, seeing as she was a stripper before she became famous, you'd think someone would have noticed.**_

_**But she wasn't the first "victim" of a theory like this. Decades earlier, Madonna got a lot of this too, her "Papa Don't Preach" hit seen as an effort to encourage unprotected premarital sex among teenagers. (They missed the entire point of the song, and she didn't even write it.) And decades earlier, Marilyn Monroe was the subject of serious rumors, believed to be a Communist sympathizer during the Red Scare, so much that to this day, many believe that her death was murder, not the suicide that was on the official coroner's report.**_

_**None of these singers would ever have truly hurt a fly, so why all the venom? Well, their groundbreaking music and controversial ideas were not appreciated by the older generation at the time, who thought them to be a bad influence on America's youth. (Socrates was executed for that sort of thing, if I recall.) Unfortunately for them, the youth were their target audience, and they rarely listened to their detractors, because the youth don't share the ideas of that vocal minority. The albums of singers like this tend to go platinum overnight and they become successful, much to the chagrin of the folks who wish they'd fail. **_

_**Maybe jealousy is the true motive... Or maybe these people don't like the fact that the world is changing around them but they can't. So dumb rumors like this start, which hopefully, never get anywhere.**_

_**These people resist progress, refusing to bend, and like I said, a tree that doesn't bend, breaks. **_

**0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**CHAPTER FIVE**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Material Girl**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

At a diner several blocks away, Douglas was sitting at the counter while a waitress was pouring coffee.

"It's strong today, hon," she said.

"Ah, the stronger the better," he said, holding his head, the fog from the jet lag still there. "So, ah… was wondering… Anything strange happen around here lately?"

"Kinda depends on your definition of strange, hon," she replied. "Usually, the only big news that happens in this city has to do with the Packers, or their current and former players."

"Well, ah…" he said. "You know anything about Clement McMahan?"

She looked at him strangely.

"The butcher of Green Bay?" she asked. "Someone told me he was dead… Is that true, or is he just in jail?"

"Uh… I'm pretty sure he's dead…" he asked. "You, uh, wouldn't happen to know…"

"Who killed him?" she asked, her voice sinking to a whisper.

She put the coffee pot down, and took her glasses off.

"This is completely off the record, hon, but… Know how that… man used to kill people when he wanted to do it personally? Know what a Chicago typewriter is?"

"That's…" he said. "That's gangland slang for the Thompson submachine gun… The 'tommy gun'…"

"Yeah, the type Al Capone used to use, they say," she continued. "He'd have one of his goons tie the poor guy to a post or handcuff him to a fence, then he'd take one of those guns and empty the whole damn magazine into the guy's chest. Do you have any idea how many bullets you can fire from one of those things?"

"Dear God…" said Douglas. "The poor man would have been… Swiss cheese…"

"Yeah, more than one coroner said that same thing," she muttered, "and there was a common joke among his goons that half the money his gang made from crime went to buying bullets. See, it wasn't satisfying for him unless it was violent and _loud. _He didn't even like guns with silencers, to him, a gun that wasn't loud defeated the purpose.

"He was so fond of that sort of thing, he would set traps for rivals using old-fashioned dynamite, grenades, plastic explosives… Anything that would _explode._"

_Aye, tulgar berserkers are fond of noise, _thought Douglas.

"Not all of them were enemies, by the way," she continued. "Some were civilians who made him angry, or just annoyed him. He wouldn't do it to women though. He said he wouldn't shoot them… Or hit them… For _them _he has a special gallows that he built and kept in his basement for that exact purpose…"

"Ya can't be serious…" he asked.

"That's what one of his thugs that turned states' evidence claimed," she replied. "A gallows built with three nooses, and he used it for special occasions. One time he kidnapped a rival mob boss, and forced the guy to watch as he used the gallows to execute his wife and two daughters before killing the guy. His claim of chivalry was just an excuse. He didn't even offer them blindfolds.

"We have to take that henchman's word, of course… When police finally got a search warrant because of that testimony, Clem had destroyed most of the incriminating stuff and gone into hiding…

"But… Getting back to your original question… I would say everyone, including me…"

Douglas sighed, and leaned on his hand.

_From what I'm hearing, _he thought, _I'd probably be on that list too if he weren't already dead… Like solving a whodunit that takes place at the National Butler's Convention. _

_Brings up two tough questions, though… One, if he was a tulgar berserker, how the hell didn't WE know about him until now?_

_An' two… Who finally _did _manage to kill him?_

Of course, he realized _that _was probably the reason Jalal wanted to find the killer. Everyone hated this guy, and everyone might have wanted to kill him, but the thing is, the murder had about five witnesses, and still, no positive ID. This mystery man, who confronted a tulgar berserker with a shotgun _unarmed _and won, couldn't be ignored.

Then his Disk hummed and vibrated again.

"I'm here, chief," he said. "Uhm, I…"

"Douglas, how far are you from Green Bay Plaza?" shouted Jalal's voice, interrupting.

"Wha?" he asked. "Green Bay Plaza? I…"

"About four blocks that way, hon," said the waitress, pointing outside. "New gadget?"

"Uh…" he said, looking out the street.

"I heard her," replied Jalal. "Get over there, it's an emergency. I'll tell you on the way."

"Right…" he said. "What's the deal?"

He tossed a five-spot on the counter.

"Let's just say it's a good thing you're there…" replied the leader.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Four minutes and twenty seconds later…

Right outside the Taco Bell at the strip mall called the Green Bay Mall, three tough-looking punks were lying sprawled on the ground, all three with bruises, black eyes, and fat lips. One had been thrown against the now-dented remains of a bicycle.

"What the devil?" shouted Douglas.

He ran up to them, and offered his hand to the one who was trying to get up.

"What happened to you guys?" he shouted.

The one he was helping groaned a little, but didn't answer. The other two sat up.

"Uh, we were…" said the second.

The third slapped him on the back of the head.

"I mean, she was…"

That got him another slap.

"Uh, we were jumped by three other guys," said the one who slapped him. "Yeah, they beat us up and robbed us…"

"You were robbed?" asked Douglas. "I suppose the muggers just didn't care for gold?"

The punk who had spoken looked at himself. Indeed, the bling he was wearing made his excuse a little hard to believe.

"We were beaten up by a babe dressed like a bunny girl," groaned the one he had helped.

"You are _so _dead, Nick," said the one with the bling.

"Hey, at least _I'll _go to Heaven!" shouted Nick.

"Where is…" started Douglas.

Then he heard a scream, and his question was answered.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Down the street a little, Emily had apparently gotten tired of the first "trick", and had become a little daring. She had just positioned herself in a central area, and had spent the last ten minutes _inviting _people to wrestle her.

Too easy.

Two defeated victims were lying on the ground, and they were hurt even worse that the other three. She was finishing off a third as Douglas got there, slamming his face into the side of a wall and dropping him on the floor as everyone watched in horror.

"Go on, get…" said the moon elf, nudging him with his foot. He groaned and tried to get up, but could only crawl.

"HEY!" shouted the Shadowchaser.

"Wow, you finally made it," she said, turning around. "I was wondering what a girl needed to do to get your attention."

"Ah you crazy?" he asked.

He looked at the guy she had just fought. His nose was bleeding badly.

"You actually think this is _funny? _Are you some kind of sadist?"

"Nope," she said. "I just like beating the shit out of people. So it was either this or take up ice hockey."

"You know, lass, I don't find you one bit funny," he replied. "Ah never thought I've ever say this to a lady wearing a Bunny outfit, but… Yer a disgrace to that uniform!"

"Why thank you," she replied.

"Yer lucky I never hit a woman," he said.

"Don't let that stop you fellah," she giggled. "Still, if you are into chivalry… I always wanted to see what a big bad Shadowchaser like you is made of…"

_Should I throw up now, or later? _he thought. _All right, she asked for it…_

He hated to do it, but at least he knew how to take someone down in one hit without hurting him _too _bad. Still Emily's smile didn't falter in the least as his punch landed on her chin…

…nor did it falter after it _landed._

Douglas looked at her in disbelief. She giggled a little. He had been holding back, sure, but… She hadn't even flinched.

_This is _not _the typical nightclub cocktail waitress… _he thought.

He aimed another punch, this time with more strength behind it, and Emily reacted a little this time; however, it wasn't the way he had hoped. She lifted her right hand and _caught _his fist.

She giggled a little again. Then he yelled "OOF!" and stepped backwards.

It was obvious that she had just kicked him in the gut right then, and the wind was knocked out of him, not just from the blow, but from the surprise. He looked around; it seemed they had drawn quite a crowd, and the six guys she had beaten up were watching too.

They hadn't been hurt bad, but Douglas was starting to get the picture. She had been holding back too; she likely could have killed them if she had wanted to.

"Come on big guy, put em up!" she laughed. She lifted her fists and started hopping around.

_This dame is loco, but there's gotta be some point to this, _he thought. _Elves dressed like this with super strength don't just start street brawls for no reason…_

_How could she be so strong? Gauntlets of Ogre Power or Potions of Bull's Strength or something?_ _Least I hope it's something like that, 'cause if it isn't…_

"Yer pretty strong, lass, you on steroids or something?"

Emily actually laughed.

"Maybe, maybe not," she replied. "What if I am? That's not illegal, unless you take them to play baseball, or football, or cycling, or box lacrosse, or… Well, you get the idea…"

He just looked at her in the face. She pouted.

"Don't wanna fight, huh?" she purred. Then she made a rather seductive pose. "Want to frisk me?"

"Look, lass…" said Douglas.

"Maybe I can just take this outfit off and save you the trouble…" she said, softly.

"Oh, yeah!" shouted someone from the crowd.

"Lass, please, I'll just…" he said.

Then she lifted her left arm forward, and Douglas noticed her armband – it was metal. There was a click, and it unfolded into a Duel Disk.

"Huh?" he said.

"Let's start over," she cooed. "You don't want to fight me the old way – yet… So then, duel me… Believe me, this gets my heart beating just as fast."

_Is this some sort of, _he thought, _what's the word… fetish of hers?_

_Well, whether it is or it isn't, there's less of a chance of someone actually getting hurt. Let's hope I can bring her down this way. _

He activated his own Disk, then stepped back five yards.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile, above them, the muscular guy with the red hair was on the roof of the Old County Buffet, watching with an eager look.

_Man, this must be my lucky day, _he thought. _Can't believe I forgot my video recorder. Go get 'im, Emily!_

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Say, I recognize you," said Emily. "Yeah… Douglas Bowmaker, right? The guy who caught that, uhm…"

She quickly looked at everyone watching, and changed mid-sentence.

"…really… ugly, uh… legbreaker in Dublin?"

That was _technically _the truth, but he was far uglier than most humans, and was about eight feet tall, which was no surprise considering he was a spriggan. (Most folks had been fooled by the media into assuming that leprechauns were the only fey who lived in Ireland, but there were plenty of others, and some were just plain _nasty.)_

"Aye," replied Douglas. "You saw my picture somewhere."

"Mmm-hmm," she said, nodding. "I'm not good with faces, but I never forget a beard like that.

"Duel Gazer, activate!"

She threw out her arm, unfolding the device, one with a hot pink lens, and slipped it over her right eye. Douglas used a more modest one, and the digital simulation began.

"_**Duel interface set, augmented reality vision link established."**_

**(Douglas: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Emily: 8,000)**

"I don' like smart-ass dames," he said. He made one draw, and looked over his six cards. "I'll set these two cards, and that will be my turn for now."

He played the cards, and both the cards appeared – both in his Spell Zone, actually.

"You sure?" asked Emily, making a curious look. "Bad hand?"

"Maybe, maybe not," he replied. "I said it's your move."

"Okay…" she said making her first turn. "Draw…

"And I'll summon someone who's a real looker… The suave and mysterious Dawn Knight!"

The light turned hazy and red, and an armored man with black hair, a crimson cape, and goggles with dark lenses, stepped in front of Emily, shielding his eyes from the glare. The odd dawn slowly subsided, and he lifted a sword. (1,400 ATK)

"Ah, what the hey… Attack directly!"

"I use this…" replied Douglas. "The First Monarch!"

One of his cards lifted, the purple background indicating a Trap and the infinity sign marking it as a Continuous Trap. However, the card disappeared, and a monster formed that looked like a tall, shadowy humanoid wearing a black cloak. It knelt in front of Douglas. (2,400 DEF)

"Not only does it make an effective shield," he said, "but if I discard one card from my hand, it becomes any Attribute I want…"

He discarded one of his cards, and the First Monarch's cloak turned scarlet with a halo of fire.

"As you can see, I decided on Fire this time."

"Nice save…" she said, "but he won't be defending next turn. Well, he can, but if he does, he won't last…"

She played a card, and the odd morning light was accompanied by cheerful cricket chirps and the smell of fresh morning dew.

"This card is called Butterfly Charm," she said. "That means your face-up monsters have to attack if they can, and if they _can't, _they get totaled at the end of _my _turn."

She smiled sweetly again. Then a face-down card appeared in the space next to it.

"Assuming I don't get rid of them first, but keep that in mind. I'll set one more, and that's that…"

_Okay, this is… new, _he thought. _Still, it's not like I never intended to attack…_

He drew, then switched cards quickly.

"Forgot to mention," he said, "since I switched the First Monarch's Attribute, if I sacrifice it to summon a high-Level monster that's the _same _Attribute, it can count as _two _monsters. So I'll sacrifice him…"

The Trap Monster and the Trap it came from disappeared, and a dark, hazy fog rose from the spot. It got bigger, turning into a large cloud, then _sixteen _glowing eyes peered out of it.

"I summon Yamata Dragon!" he shouted.

There were eight terrible roars, and eight hideous serpent heads emerged from the cloud, fires burning in each of their jaws. (2,600 ATK)

"WOO!" shouted Emily, looking at the huge Dragon. "You're a _big _guy, huh?"

It looked at her and growled…

"Ah, your bark is worse than your bite…"

Then it roared, clearly angry, and this time, she looked a little nervous.

"…but your _breath, _on the other hand…"

"You know, lass," said Douglas. "Teasing Dragons is _not _wise. It's like teasing a pit bull, times a million. Just ask the chief… He never did it himself, but he saw what happened to lots a' folks who tried.

"Attack Dawn Knight with Blazing Prominence!"

As eight burning streams of fire honed in on Dawn Knight, Emily grabbed one of the four cards in her hand, and held it in front of her.

"From my hand, I banish Butterspy Enchantress!" she shouted.

Streaks of light darted from Dawn Knight, and a girlish giggle came from behind him. As the flames hit the Knight, Douglas vaguely saw a ghostly woman behind the Knight, caressing and hugging him playfully.

Then the fire and the light subsided, and the Knight was still there, but the strange woman was gone.

**(D: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 6,800)**

"Not only did he survive because of her effect," continued Emily, closing her eyes with a smirk, "but I get to take a Light monster from my deck, so long as its Attack Score is lower than the damage I took."

She casually took a card from her deck as Edgar muttered something under his breath.

"Yeah, well, since ya _did _take damage," he said, "ah still get to use my Dragon's effect, and draw cards until I have five."

He made three draws, then looked at them and his other two.

"Now, 'cause the big guy will go back to my hand when I end my turn, I'll use this card…"

His Spell Card flipped up, and the Mystik Wok appeared behind him.

"I'll use the old Wok, as it is, to sacrifice him and gain Life Points equal to his Defense Points."

The Dragon disappeared in a cloud of fiery smoke and ash.

"I'll set two cards, and I'm done," he said, as two more reversed cards appeared in his Spell Zone.

"Not yet you aren't," said Emily, with a snarky smile.

"A Trap?" said Edgar. "What…"

The Trap lifted up, and again, a soft light covered the makeshift arena.

"Spiritual Light Art – Hijiri," she said. "I have to sacrifice a Light monster to use this Trap, so I'll use Dawn Knight…"

Dawn Knight faded into the light, and a shimmering portal opened in the floor.

"Then, for starters, because he went to the Graveyard, I can take a Light monster from my deck and discard it."

She giggled again, and then took another card, playfully throwing in into the discard slot.

"Next, we get to the Trap itself," she continued. "By sacrificing a Light monster, I can Special Summon a banished one. _However, _you can stop it from happening if you reveal a Trap Card in your hand."

Douglas grunted a little. He had just _set _the only two he had.

_She's smart, _he thought. _She knew enough not ta jump the gun…_

He only shook his head a little. The portal shimmered more, and someone started to rise out of it.

Douglas was a little surprised. It was a young elf-like woman with richly tanned skin, her blonde hair in a long ponytail, wearing a halter top with a _dangerously _low v-line, the two sides held together with straps across it that seemed to emphasize her bust. She also wore a breechcloth, along with knee-high boots that seemed to be made of the same fabric. All of her clothes were a light shade of aquamarine that seemed to shimmer. Most remarkably, she had _very _large, decorated butterfly wings, like those of a monarch, the same shade of green.

She looked at Douglas and made a playful wink. (1,500 ATK)

**(D: 11,100) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 6,800)**

"I think it's my move now…" said Emily. "Draw…"

She smiled again as she added that one to her others.

"Next thing I'm going to do is banish Dawn Knight," she said, "because by banishing a Light monster, I can summon Butterspy Temptress from my Graveyard."

There was another gentle light and another girlish laugh, and another butterfly girl rose beside the first one; she was a brunette with short hair and bangs. Her outfit was the same as the other, but colored rich magenta. Again, her large wings were the same vibrant color. (800 ATK)

"The downside is," continued Emily, "both her Scores are reduced to zero. Next I'll bring out Butterspy Seductress."

A third one appeared, this one with red hair worn long to the side. Her outfit – again the same style – was bright yellow, as were her wings. (1,100 ATK)

_This is gonna be one of those days where I wish I never got out of bed…_ thought Douglas.

Then all three of the Butterspies stopped giggling and looked _very _serious.

"With these three monsters," shouted Emily, "I build the Overlay Network!"

Oddly enough, what happened was different than most times Douglas had seen an Xyz Summon. While a vortex appeared in midair, it was _very _different than any he was familiar with. To describe it best, it was a ring of gold with eight spikes forming a starburst pattern, hovering in midair. The center… Well, through the center, Duncan could see a hazy landscape under a red, burning sky…

Then a terrible suction started, and the three Butterspies were sucked through as dirt, dust, and litter on the street were drawn in. Everyone watching held onto hats, purses, and other loose clothing as the portal shattered…

Another elf-like butterfly maiden was in front of Emily, hovering in mid-air, but this one looked a little older and with far more authority. Her outfit was similar, but was a one-piece leotard (still with the plunging v-line to emphasize the cleavage) with the same boots, and also velvet gloves, all of them royal purple. She was wearing diamonds everywhere; the necklace alone looked like it was worth the price of a car. She had floor-length platinum blonde hair, and her wings were violet with emerald-green triangular patterns on each of the four sections. (2,500 ATK)

"So, what do you think of Enchanting Damselfly Papilloperative?" she asked.

"I got no idea what the sam-hill a 'Papilloperative' is," replied Douglas, "but I don' think I'm gonna like it…"

"Well, it's the type of monster I need to use this card," replied Emily. "The Elimigate!"

She played the card, and the air behind her _tore _open, literally. That weird portal appeared again, but the suction was less intense now. The sinister butterfly maiden's eyes glowed, and she smiled at him.

"So long as I have this card, any monster that tries to attack – _except _a Papilloperative – gets totaled. And I've got something else too…"

She played a card, and the sun got a little brighter.

"It's called Butterfly Swarm… Costs me a little to play it… Well, okay, it cost me _a lot_…"

**(D: 11,100) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 4,800)**

"That's kinda steep…" said Douglas.

"Actually, that's only the activation cost," she said, wryly. "There's also a _maintenance _cost. But it's worth it, because whenever a monster _is _totaled, is owner gets clobbered too, for 1,500 points of damage!

"Makes me wanna shout… Same with her! Attack Damselfly! Dark Banshee Scream!"

It came so sudden that Douglas didn't have time to prepare himself. It was a wail, accompanied by a blast of pure sound that hit him like a hammer, and knocked him on his back.

He grunted and looked up. Damselfly looked back at him with a frown, then produced a small aerosol bottle of breath spray (where she kept it in that outfit, he had _no _clue) and spritzed it into her throat.

_A regular comedian, _he thought.

"Your move, handsome," said Emily.

**(D: 8,600) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 4,800)**

Edgar said something incomprehensible as he picked himself up, drawing as he did so.

_This lass is pretty good… _he thought, looking at the set up. _The first Spell will make my monsters try to attack and kill them if they don't, the second one will kill them if they _do, _and the third will make me regret it either way…_

_Gonna have to improvise here…_

He set one card, and a monster appeared set in front of him.

"Move," he said.

"That's clever, big guy," she said. "You figured out the one way to _usually _avoid taking the most damage and protect your monsters when trapped in this lock…"

_Usually? _thought Douglas. _How…_

"Before I draw, I'll activate my Life-Absorbing Machine," she said.

The card on the last space in her Spell Zone opened, and _then _she made a draw.

"That means I regain a thousand of the Life Points I spent. Then I pay 2,000 of them to keep my Butterfly Swarm.

"Then, I'll use Supremacy Berry, and gain 2,000 points more."

She used one of her two cards, and a dove flew from the card holding an olive branch in its mouth.

"Now for the final part of my combo… When my Damselfly attacks a monster that's defending, she can use an Overlay Unit, and for every Continuous Spell and Trap I have, you lose 400 Life Points."

"Bring it!" shouted Douglas. "I'm not afraid of her!"

"Tough talk coming from a man wearing a skirt," she replied.

Damselfly screamed again, and a large ball of puss appeared on the card, then exploded into goo. Some of it splattered on Emily, but she just smiled a little broader, putting her left hand on her hip as she did.

"Giant Germ, huh?" she asked. "Well, don't forget about my Swarm…"

The card's name fit the effect perfectly. A swarm of multicolored butterflies flew out of the card like angry bees, mobbing and biting the muscular Shadowchaser.

Still, as much as they hurt, and as angry as he was about that… The "skirt" crack was something he – and men who wore kilts in general – _never _found funny…

**(D: 5,500) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 5,300)**

"Now you've done it…" he snarled, as he got up. "You not only lose 500 Life Points, from my Giant Germ, but I get two more…."

The goo started to coagulate and slither together, rising up into two different bacterium. (1,000 ATK)

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

The big guy watching on the roof was chuckling softly.

_Yeah, NOW you've done it, Emily! _he thought. _You've made him mad! Man, I only wish I had some Crackerjacks right now…_

Then he caught an odd smell, some sort of incense. He looked down, and saw something familiar. A small, golden chest shaped like a temple, emitting an eerie smoke from the sides.

"Now what?" he thought.

He bent down and opened it, taking a small slip of paper out.

"**CHECK THE MOBILE, IDIOT!" **was written on it.

"Huh?" he said.

He fished around in his pocket, and took his cellular phone out. Then he slapped himself in the forehead.

Once again, he had forgotten to turn this thing on. As he did so, he wondered just how long it had been since he had, and how much trouble he was going to be in…

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Now it's my turn…" he growled Douglas, as he drew.

"First off, I'll use the Trade-In Spell Card. I get to draw twice, so long as I ditch one Level 8 monster."

The Spell Card appeared, and he slammed one of his other cards into the Disk, then made two draws.

"Dramatic," replied Emily. "Got anything good?"

"See for yourself," he replied. "I sacrifice both Germs…"

One of the Fiends turned to golden fire, then the other. There was a rumble of thunder…

"…and summon one of my best monsters… The defender of the Sanctuary in the Sky… Majestic Mech – Goryu!"

The sky darkened, and golden squares flew from above, below, and each side, all of them piecing together into a _huge _creature. The whole thing took a few seconds to form, then revealed itself in full, a golden metal serpent with a faceless head and multiple, feathered wings, the whole thing about a hundred feet long. (2,900 ATK)

For the first time, Emily was a little nervous.

"Okay that's… a pretty mean-looking Fairy…" she said.

"Not all Fairies are the goody-goody type who live on fluffy clouds and play harps, lass," he said. "Some are downright _tough. _You can't take things for granted… After all, I just found out that some Playboy Bunnies are brutal street fighters."

"Uh…" she said. "Touché… Still, as big as he is, he can't blast through my Elimigate…"

The front part of Goryu's "face" started to pulsate.

"Looks like he's gonna try anyway!" shouted Douglas.

A blast of plasma thundered at Damselfly, but true to Emily's warning, hellfire erupted from the Elimigate… Both duelists ducked as the Majestic Mech shattered.

Then the swarm flew from the Butterfly Swarm card at him again, but he was a little ready this time, shielding himself with the forearm of his free arm.

**(D: 4,000) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 5,300)**

"I'll set one more card, and then play the Spell, The Shallow Grave," he said. "We both take one monster from our Graveyards, and set them on the field."

Emily slyly looked at the discard slot on her Disk. There was only one monster in her Graveyard right now, Butterspy Temptress. Normally, summoning her with her effect meant she was gone for good if she went to the Graveyard, but using her to summon an Xyz changed everything.

She quickly set the card on her Monster Zone, and a set monster appeared opposite Damselfly.

"Your move, lass," said Douglas.

"I draw once…" said Emily, making a draw. "I'll give up 2,000 Life Points to keep my Butterfly Swarm, but I get back 1,000 from my Machine."

**(D: 5,500) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 4,300)**

"Not that I need it… I'll attack your monster with Papilloperative, and use an Overlay Unit again! Go!"

Enchanting Damselfly Papilloperative screamed a second time, but this time, it met some opposition. The three Waboku priestesses sprang up, halting the advance.

"Your Trap?" she gasped.

"One of them," he replied. "My monster is safe and so am I, but… Waboku doesn't stop the actual attack…"

The flat card in front of him flipped right-side-up, and a small bat-like imp holding a spear appeared. (500 DEF)

"Spear Cretin?" asked Emily. "That wasn't in your Graveyard…"

"Was it?" he asked. "Think hard…"

"Uh…" she said.

Then it sunk in…

"_Not only does it make an effective shield, but if I discard one card from my hand, it becomes any Attribute I want…"_

"You're smarter than you let on, fellah," she said.

"I'll consider that a compliment," he replied. "And seein' as ya just flipped my Spear Cretin, we both summon a monster from our Graveyards, either set in Defense Mode, or in Attack Mode. I have another monster in my Graveyard you may not have noticed… Darklord Superbia!"

The monster that appeared, was bizarre to say the least. It looked like a huge chalice made of black metal, with two small arms ending in claws, a hideous mask in the front, and huge hawk-like wings in back, flapping and keeping it hovering in the air. (2,900 ATK)

"When he's summoned from the Graveyard, he gets to bring one a' his friends along," continued Douglas. "Guess who it is…"

There was another loud roar, and Goryu rose on the opposite side on Douglas. (2,900 ATK)

"Okay…" she said. "You've got… two of them now… But…"

"But they can't get past your Elimigate, right?" asked Douglas. "No, they can't, so I'll just use someone who can. Watch and learn…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile, the muscular guy was sitting on the rooftop with his legs over the edge, talking on the mobile.

"Yeah, I'm watching her right now," he said. "It's a scream."

Then he listened, and his expression changed.

"Calm down, calm down!" he said. "It's terrible when you stutter!"

He stopped.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh…"

He looked at Douglas.

"Right…" he muttered. "Crap… Okay, I'm coming…"

He was about to hang up, then he stopped. Then he listened again.

"Eh? There?" he said. "Well, okay…"

He hung up, then stood up, and moved his vest aside slightly. The large bronze belt buckle he was wearing had a shape like hexagon, but longer widthwise, and six triangular buttons on each radius.

He quickly tapped the six buttons in a specific pattern, and the same eerie smoke that had come from the chest, only a larger quantity this time, rose from the floor in front of him. He quickly picked up the chest, and the smoke started to cover him.

After a few seconds, the smoke vanished, and he had gone with it.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"I'll set one more card," said Emily.

She fit a card into the last space in her Spell Zone.

"Your move, tough stuff."

"Fine!" shouted Douglas, as he drew.

"And there's the sweet spot! Ah use the Fiend's Sanctuary Spell Card."

The Spell appeared, and a wicked-looking stone gargoyle on a pedestal followed, then an odd, metal stickman. (0 ATK)

"Then ah sacrifice this Metal Fiend Token and Spear Cretin to summon my _favorite _monster! Here he comes…"

The two Fiends shattered into pieces, and the pieces turned gold. Then they started to put themselves back together…

"_Felgrand Dragon!" _

The Dragon wasn't as big as Goryu, but it was larger than life. It was standing on its hind legs, with armored skin of pure gold, gleaming in the early afternoon sun. It looked at Emily and her monster, its eyes liquid pools of gold that seemed mesmerizing. (2,800 ATK)

"Okay, okay, so now what?" she asked.

"Keep yer shirt on!" he exclaimed. "I'm gonna make an Xyz Summon of my own…"

This time, the portal that appeared was the normal one. Goryu turned into a sphere of light, while Superbia turned to a globe of inky blackness.

"So with the Overlay Network opened," he continued, "ah can summon my Dragon's best friend… Besides me, of course… Meet Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand!"

There was a blast of radiant sparks, and a tall, muscular Warrior leapt out of the vortex. His form-fitting metallic armor was made of the same material as the Dragon's hide, and he had a golden helmet that concealed his face with a gold plate. He wore a cape that was ribbed, making it look like the Dragon's wings, fancy, decorated gloves and boots, and a golden, shimmering sword. (2,800 ATK)

"Heh, the two Fairies were better," said Emily, with a slight laugh.

"That's what you think," replied Douglas. "Ya see, by giving up an Overlay Unit, he can choose one monster on the field…"

A light flashed from the Knight's sword, and the flash surged into Felgrand Dragon's chest.

"This effect prevents Felgrand Dragon from using its own effect for the rest of the turn, but… Now it's immune to _all other_ effects!"

"You're kidding…" replied Emily. "But that means…"

Felgrand Dragon opened its jaws, and a pulsating orb of light started to form in them. Suddenly, Damselfly looked frightened.

"You got it!" he replied. "He can blast right through that Elimigate without hurting himself! So it's curtains for her. Attack with Mega Plasma Blast!"

The burning plasma blasted at the sorceress, and a loud scream that tapered into a sob echoed over the streets, right before she was reduced to hot ash. Then the Elimigate card shattered too.

"Seems that card went with her," said Douglas. "But not _that _one…"

He pointed to the Butterfly Swarm card, and it was working again, but this time, the swarm flew out and mobbed _Emily. _She was the one who shrieked now.

**(D: 4,000) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 2,500)**

"Been waitin' for that all day," he said. "In fact, why don't we see it again…"

"I use Call of the Haunted!" shouted Emily.

Her Trap flipped up and around, and Butterspy Seductress floated out of the ground. (1,100 ATK)

"Oh, and by the way," she said, "you aren't allowed to attack any monster except her."

"Well, fine!" replied Douglas.

The Knight turned to her, but then, Seductress giggled and waved to him playfully. The Knight paused…

"What?" said Douglas.

Emily discarded her last card, and Seductress strode up to Felgrand the Divine Dragon Knight with a sly look. He lowered his sword...

"Stay away from her!" shouted Douglas.

"Too late, fellah," said Emily.

Indeed it was; the Knight didn't resist as Butterspy held his head a planted a deep kiss on his lips. Then she let go, and led him by the hand to Emily's side of the field.

"Vile witch…" growled Douglas.

"Hey, no-one ever said you _had _to attack her," replied Emily.

Douglas made a deep sigh. She was right…

"Ah end my turn…" he said.

"Good…" she said, making a draw. The Life-Absorbing Machine glowed again.

"Don't forget, ya harpy, you have to pay 2,000 Points to keep Butterfly Swarm!"

Emily fidgeted. She looked at the card.

"Uh…" she said. "Maybe I'd better not…"

The card turned to dust.

"Thanks to your Shallow Grave and Spear Cretin, I have both Temptress and Enchantress here…"

Her two set monsters flipped up, revealing themselves. (1,500 ATK, 800 ATK)

"So I'll build the Overlay Unit again…"

This time, it was the normal vortex, and it drew the three Butterspy though like a gloomy, dark spiral.

"I Xyz Summon Night Papilloperative!" she shouted.

Another butterfly-themed humanoid flew out of the vortex, but this time, it was male. It wore a black outfit that seemed a combination of spandex and armor, with golden highlights, with bladed shoulder guards, knee guards, helmet crest, and sword-like blades on his wrists, pointing backwards. His mask covered his entire face, and his moth-like wings were vibrant blue and violet. (2,600 ATK)

"Now _that's _a sharp outfit!" she said.

The monster didn't seem to find the joke any funnier than Douglas or anyone else did, because he groaned a little and shook his head covering his eyes with his hand.

"All right, all right, bad joke…" said Emily. "I'll use this guy's effect now… I'll ditch one Overlay Unit…"

She took Temptress' card, and slipped it into her Graveyard Slot.

"…then we count up every Overlay Unit on every Xyz Monster on the field, multiply by 300, and add the total to Night Papilloperative's Score. Think fast…"

(3,500 ATK)

"Now seeing as you'll get your Knight back at the end of my turn, and I don't want that to happen… Felgrand Divine Dragon Knight, attack Felgrand Dragon!"

The Knight and the Dragon looked each other in the eye, then he lifted his sword, and the two charged towards each other. There was a blinding flash as the two monsters were vaporized.

"Well don't just stand there!" she laughed, turning to Night Papilloperative.

The moth-Warrior spread its wings, flying upward, and then came down feet-first, kicking Douglas hard in the chest, causing him to fall on his behind with a crash.

**(D: 500) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 2,500)**

"Hope ya enjoyed that missy…" he said.

One of his remaining cards lifted up.

"I use Damage Gate! Now I can Special Summon someone from my Graveyard with an Attack Score equal to or less than the damage I took."

There was another dark, shadowy aura, and Darklord Superbia appeared again. (2,900 ATK) Then, again, the shimmering portal appeared, and Goryu appeared with him. (2,900 ATK)

"…so thank you _so _much for sending my Knight there while he had Goryu as an Overlay Unit."

"I'm so scared," said Emily. "Well, I would be, but you see, when my turn ends, Night Papilloperative's Score won't go back to 2,600, it will stay where it is. I can even use his effect again to bring it up another 300 points. Even more if there are more Xyzs around.

"Oh… and I've got this too…"

She played her last card, and Emergency Provisions appeared, and the Butterfly Charm, Call of the Haunted, and Life-Absorbing Machine turned into green mist. She inhaled deeply, and breathed it in.

"Ah…" she said. "Invigorating…"

**(D: 500) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 5,500)**

"Your move, flyboy. Got anything else?"

"Oh… You bet I do…" he said.

He smiled broadly as he got up, drawing a card as he did. Then his final Trap lifted up. It was _his _Call of the Haunted. A golden light shone on the field, and Felgrand Dragon returned. (2,800 ATK)

"Now to unleash his true potential," he said. "You like math, right? Well, take the Level of my Yamata Dragon, multiply by 200, and you've got the amount of Attack Points my Felgrand Dragon gains right now, seein' as I Special Summoned him from the Graveyard."

(4,200 ATK)

"So now my monster is bigger than yours…"

"Ah… heh, heh…" said Emily.

"No more fooling!" shouted Douglas.

The Dragon's mighty breath shot at Night Papilloperative, blowing him into teeny-tiny pieces.

"Now for you!" he said, holding up his fist. "Enervation Ray!"

Two beams of pure blackness shot from Darklord Superbia's eyes, striking Emily directly in the chest…

"Ooh…" she said.

Then she looked at him with a nervous smile.

"That all you've got?"

_I don't believe this, _he thought.

With a mighty thunderclap, Goryu followed, the lightning crashing down, striking the rogue Bunny Girl…

**(D: 500) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 0)**

"What the…" said Douglas.

He took off his D-Gazer as the VR started to disappear. His opponent was gone. Only the same eerie green smoke was rising from where she had stood, and quickly dissipating… Then he noticed a note on the ground.

"What's this?" he said, as he carefully approached it.

He picked it up, and read.

_Dear Douglas,_

_I wanted to thank you for the great duel. It was fun. _

_Anyway, if you're looking for the guy who killed Clement McMahan, I doubt there's any point looking around Green Bay any more. I heard on good authority that he's left the city. _

_I might see you again… But whether or not you'll see _me, _well, that's a _very _different question._

_Love,_

The letter was "signed" with a lipstick print.

_In the name of __Jehoshaphat__, what was that all about?_ he thought.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

A few hours later, about six-thirty, a highway outside Chicago. A D-Wheel with a male rider was driving west, and humming to himself.

"Going fast, makes me feel alive, my heart beats, in…"

Then he slammed the side of his helmet with his hand.

"Damn, I can't get that song outta my head!"

The young man pulled to a stop at a rest area to the side of the highway. He took off his helmet, and looked around.

_Seems to be the right spot…_ thought Francis.

He was a tall man about twenty-five or so, with a leather jacket and jeans, and a t-shirt with a picture of the _Looney Tunes _character Yosemite Sam on it. He had a boyish face and shaggy brown hair that was slightly long in the back. His arms were rather toned and muscular – he had learned a little having Nichole as a sparring partner.

He had two odd tattoos, one on each arm. The first was that of a scantily clad elf maiden with eagle wings beside a golden sun-like image. The one of his other arm had a dark counterpart of that image; a dark elf version of the same maiden, with bat like wings, beside an ominous moon image.

He dismounted, then dug into his pocket, and took a note that Bartholomew had written on an envelope.

"Okay, let's see here…" he said to himself, reading.

"_Thou shalt know when thine time is right. Celestial orb first horns at night. Stand to shun the northern star, atop the stone from south is far. Find the stones the horns connect. The sinister stone is the stone correct. Circle widdershins four stones more, greet the dawn, move two stones more. Widdershins circle again one stone, slant across the circle home. Imagine another stone laid down, stand it that spot to gain the crown."_

He scratched his head.

"Lovely…" he thought. "Funny, Bartholomew, very…"

Then, the sun seemed to go out… Quickly.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**BUTTERFLY CHARM**_** (Spell Card)**_

**Continuous Spell**

**Image: **Fairies with butterfly wings flying over a peaceful meadow full of flowers.

_**Effect: **_Monsters your opponent controls must attack, if able. During the End Phase of your opponent's turn, destroy all face-up monsters controlled by your opponent that did not declare an attack.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**ELIMIGATE**** (Spell Card)**

**Continuous Spell**

**Image: **A circular portal in the sky with a golden frame, with a suction drawing everything in. A hellish landscape is seen on the other side. In front of the portal, a man stands with his arms outstretched.

_**Effect: **_When a monster other than a "Papilloperative" Monster attacks, negate that attack and destroy that monster. If neither player controls a face-up "Papilloperative" Monster, destroy this card.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**BUTTERFLY SWARM**** (Spell Card)**

**Continuous Spell**

**Image: **A swarm of butterflies made of violet energy flying around a hill while a sun radiating eerie, purple light shines overhead.

**Effect: **Pay 2,000 Life Points to activate this card. During each of your Standby Phases, either pay 2,000 Life Points or destroy this card. If a Monster is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, its owner takes 1,500 points of damage.

_Note: The preceding three cards were first used by Droite in the "Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal'' episode "Welcome to the Jungle". Creative credit goes to the writers of that episode._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**ENCHANTING DAMSELFLY PAPILLOPERATIVE (Monster Card)**

**Spellcaster/Dark/Xyz/Effect/Rank4/2,500ATK/1,500DEF**

_3 Level 4 Monsters_

**Effect: **If this card attacks an opposing monster, you may detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; if you do, and this card destroys a monster in face-down Defense Position, your opponent takes 400 points of damage times the number of Continuous Spell and Trap Cards you control.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**BUTTERSPY ENCHANTRESS (Monster Card)**

**Spellcaster/Light/Effect/Lvl4/1,500/1,000**

**Effect: **If your opponent attacks a Level 4 or lower LIGHT monster you control that is in Attack Position, banish this monster in your hand. The attack target is not destroyed, and you can add 1 "Butterspy" monster from your deck to your hand with an ATK that is equal or lower to the damage taken, except for a "Butterspy Enchantress".

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**BUTTERSPY TEMPTRESS (Monster Card)**

**Spellcaster/Light/Effect/Lvl4/800/1,600**

**Effect: **If this card is in your Graveyard, you may Special Summon this card from your Graveyard in Attack Position by Banishing another Level 4 LIGHT Monster from your Graveyard. If you do, reduce the ATK and DEF of this card to zero. If this card is removed from the field after this effect is activated, banish it.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**BUTTERSPY SEDUCTRESS (Monster Card)**

**Spellcaster/Light/Effect/Lvl4/1,100/1,800**

**Effect: **If you control this card, your opponent cannot attack any monster you control except "Butterspy Seductress". If this card is attacked by an opposing monster, you may discard 1 card from your hand to take control of the attacking monster until the End Phase of your next turn.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Jemorille: Emily seemed to have accomplished what she had set out to do; she and her employer seemed to be a strange ally of the mysterious assassin, and it seemed that she was as much a mystery. Still, if she was indeed behind some plot against McMahan's gang, she seemed much less bloodthirsty.**_

_**For now, a new recruit – relatively – to the Shadowchasers was getting the last thing for an event that he and many others had been waiting for a long time. Five years to be precise. He didn't want any trouble… But trouble seemed drawn to the Shadowchasers.**_

"_**Leader of the Pack" is next. Riding Duel, Acceleration!**_


	8. Leader of the Pack

_**Conspiracy theories are older than people think. If you're a connoisseur of great English literature, maybe you've heard the "**__**Marlovian theory", perhaps? This theory states that the great William Shakespeare did not truly write his plays, but the true genius behind them was a contemporary named Christopher Marlowe, who penned them for him as a ghost writer.**_

_**Marlowe was an acquaintance of Shakespeare who lived at the same time, and was a promising author. His most well-known play was **_**Doctor Faustus, **_**which many consider to be the equal of any of Shakespeare's works, and he wrote a few others, like **_**The Jew of Malta. **_**Had he lived, he may have been Shakespeare's equal, or even his superior. **_

_**But Marlowe's life was cut short when he was killed in a barroom brawl. The man who killed him was acquitted of murder after making the equivalent of a self-defense plea; there is some evidence to believe that Marlowe may have been a violent man or an alcoholic.**_

_**But some believe that Marlowe may have faked his death and ghost written Shakespeare's plays, and claim that Shakespeare is a fraud. **_

_**Where is the evidence for this? Well, ignoring the fact that some believe Marlowe was a spy for the Crown who knew too much and had reason to fake his death (possibly another conspiracy theory) some point to Shakespeare's actual plays, where themes of faked **__**(or wrongly presumed) death, disgrace, banishment, usurpation, and changed identity seem common. The thing is, actual physical evidence that Marlowe didn't die is lacking, while evidence that he **_**did, **_**which include many witnesses to his death and reports by the County Coroner **_**and **_**the Queen's Coroner, seem pretty concrete. **_

_**The true reason for this theory is upper class egotism. Shakespeare was middle class at best, while Marlowe had money and connections in the government. The upper class just couldn't stomach the fact that the greatest playwright of all time was below them in terms of social class, so they came up with these rumors. **_

_**Some would ask snobs like that who propose such stories, "Can you write better?" **_

**0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**CHAPTER SIX**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Leader of the Pack**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

The next thing Francis knew, he was in a dark forest. And there were stones in front of him. Large, blocky standing stones. Sort of like the ones that made of Stonehenge, but not quite as big.

He looked up. Somehow, it had become night _very _quickly, and he was clearly far, far away from Chicago, as the light from the nearby city didn't obscure the sky at all. He could see a multitude of stars through the drifting clouds.

He looked to the side. A short, gnomish guy with a very long nose, a strong chin that was almost as long, and very outdated clothes including a floppy had sat leaning against a tree. He was playing a low tune on a wooden double pipe.

"Hey, fellah…" said Francis.

No answer.

"Hello?" said Francis.

Nothing. Francis shook his head. He slowly looked at the tall stones. They seemed arranged in an odd pattern, thirteen in number. He walked around them, getting a view from both sides.

Then he turned the scroll around, and saw the same pattern outlined on the back, sort of like a cross in a circle, like this:

"Huh…" he said.

Then, to his surprise, the clouds quickly cleared from the sky, as a crescent moon started to rise.

"Beautiful…" he gasped, looking at the starry sky. "WAIT."

He looked at the scroll again.

_Celestial orb first horns at night…_

"Does that mean the new crescent moon?" he thought.

He looked at the stones, then the odd verse again.

"A riddle, huh? Man, this bakery must make some cake… But… Let's see…"

_Stand to shun the northern star, atop the stone from south is far…_

"Okay… that probably means stand on the northernmost stone with your _back _to the north…"

He ran towards the stone at the top of the "cross", then leapt, landing on top of it. He teetered a little, but balanced. He wiped his brow, then turned around. He was looking towards the moon now.

_Find the stones the horns connect. The sinister stone is the stone correct._

He looked at up at the moon, then slowly followed down to the two stones under its "points". They were the ones at the east and southeast position.

"Sinister stone…" he thought. "Okay… 'Sinister'… That means left…"

He turned to the east one.

"Here goes…"

He leapt to the stone directly south of him, then turned east, and leapt to that one. Then he stopped to catch his breath.

_Circle widdershins four stones more…_

"Widdershins…" he thought. "What in the world does that mean?"

"It means to move circular the wrong way, lad," said the strange man.

Francis almost fell off in surprise, as he had almost forgotten about him. The gnomish fellow didn't look up as he said it.

"Wrong way, as in, 'not right'," he continued. "Mortals always have trouble with that one…"

Then he started playing the flute again, as Francis looked at the scroll again.

"Not right…" he thought. "Left… Oh! Counter-clockwise then?"

The man didn't answer. Francis shrugged turned to the stone to the left – his right – and jumped to it, then to the one below the topmost stone, then the one to the northwest, then to the one directly south.

… _greet the dawn, move two stones more…_

"Okay, that must mean east…" he said.

He hopped to the middle stone, then again to the "sinister stone". Then he wiped sweat off his forehead.

"Man, this is gonna be the first time I ever work off the calories right _before _a party," he muttered. "Let's see here…"

_Widdershins circle again one stone…_

He turned to the north, towards the northeast stone, then leapt to it.

…_slant across the circle home. _

"Cross diagonally, your mean?"

He jumped to the middle stone, then to the southwest.

_Imagine another stone laid down, stand it that spot to gain the crown._

"So… If there were another stone in that last move… It would be right…"

He leapt off the stone, to the spot southwest of it, landing on the ground.

"There…"

There was a strange, otherworldly hum, and the scenery changed. It looked like he was in a completely different part of the forest now, seeing as the stones were gone, but his D-Wheel was still about ten feet away from him, just like before.

In front of him was an odd… monument. That was the best way to put it. A _huge _sapphire, dimly glowing in the moonlight, stood in the center of a circular ridge of fancy, silvery metal, shaped like a large crown with pointed spires.

"Yup, that's a crown all right…" he said.

He slowly reached out and touched the odd monument…

Again, there was that strange hum, and he was somewhere else again. The crown was still there, but now he was at the gates of a walled village.

Well, sort of. It looked like an old English hamlet of some sort, but no-one was around, and the windows were all dark…

Opposite the crown was a signpost, with markers pointing east and west (he assumed, due to the position of the moon). One said **"Bunglewood and Forest Gate"**, and the other said **"****Corlagan's Estate".**

There was a plaque on the wall, it said, **"Ruckstown, founded the 507****th**** Year of Prince Talisid of the Guardinals". **

"Okay, Francis," he said, walking through the open gate. "Just stay inconspicuous, don't draw any attention to yourself."

He looked around. There wasn't anyone on the streets and the buildings that looked like shops didn't seem to be open, but he was able to deduce what they were for, given the signs on the storefronts.

_That one's some sort of boutique, _he thought, looking at one. _That one… The Bubbling Cauldron? Is it an alchemy shop?_

He looked at another, which seemed like an inn of some sort.

_The Toothrot Tavern?_ he exclaimed. _Man, wouldn't want to eat there…_

Then a lantern lit up in a building in front of him. A sign above the door said, **Hans' Fine Baked Goods.**

Francis was a little nervous, but five years in the Shadowchasers made him a little braver than most. He opened the door slowly, and a small bell rang. He was bombarded by pleasant and delicious smells… Fresh baked bread, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, apple, brown sugar, toasted almonds… He was almost intoxicated by the wonderful smells…

"Well, what did you expect?" asked a voice.

Francis flipped his eyes open, and saw the interior of the shop. Indeed, the cakes, breads, pastries, cookies, and croissants in the display cases looked as wonderful as they smelled, and the old-fashioned oven and cooking implements he could see behind the counter seemed to show that they had all been made with loving care. Of the bakery staff, however, he could see very little, mostly only shadow shapes moving in the back rooms.

The only guy he could see in full was the one at the counter, a brownie with clear family resemblance to Bartholomew.

"I know, I know…" said the fey. "Don't mind anyone else here… They're kind of shy."

"Yeah…" said Francis. "I figured… Uhm…"

He dug into his pocket for the claim ticket.

"Uh, I'm here to pick up something for a Mr. Dugan…"

"OH… right…" said the brownie.

He quickly dashed into the back room. Francis _really _wasn't comfortable the way he said that. But the brownie quickly returned, carrying a bakery paperboard box.

"Let's see, chocolate-on-chocolate layer cake… Be _very _careful with this, my friend…"

"Why?" asked Francis. "It's not dangerous, is it?"

"Well, sure it is…" replied the brownie.

He looked Francis in the face with a cold stare.

"I mean, it's full of saturated fat and has about fifty-thousand calories per serving…"

"Ugh…" groaned Francis. He took the box and head for the door as the brownie laughed.

"Be sure to brush your teeth later, kid!" he laughed.

"Fey…" sighed Francis, rolling his eyes.

"Seriously, Mr. Mills," said the brownie, "I should warn you, that crown is a one-way portal, you have to drive through the Bunglewood to get to the gate to your world."

"Shouldn't… Take long…" replied Francis.

"Depends," continued the brownie. "Exactly how long it takes to get to the forest gate from here is subjective. It could take anywhere from five minutes to _years_. To get there quickly, you just have to focus on your goal – whatever it may be.

"I hope you aren't distracted easily. If you are, well… I hope you have more to eat with you than that cake… And that reminds me… If you find any hazelnut trees out there, let me know where they are and I'll give you a discount next time."

Francis gave him a curious look, then stepped out of the shop and closed the door.

The realization that he had never told the guy his last name was Mills struck him hard, and sent a chill down his spine.

Well, _that _along with the fact that the bakery and the village was gone. The crown was still there, and fortunately, so was his bike. Looking down, he saw the forest path.

"Okay, so I have to 'concentrate on my goal'," he said. "Sounds easy enough…"

As he walked to the bike, he stopped. He turned his head slowly. That weird guy who had been playing the flute earlier was leaning against the tree.

"Hiya," he said, in a voice that sounded gravely and raspy.

"Uh, hey," said Francis, "look, thanks for giving me the definition, but…"

"No problem kid," said the gnomish man. "Always willing to help someone out… But, uh… I'm afraid I just need that."

He pointed to the cake box. Francis' hand tensed and edged towards his sword.

"Why, pray tell?" he asked.

"See for yourself," replied the fellow.

He produced a scroll from his coat, and unrolled it. Francis looked at what appeared to be a formal-looking document written in old-fashioned ink pen:

"_By order of Queen Morwel, food stuffs are not to be taken out of the Feywild. Members of the Royal Gard of the Court of Stars are authorized to confiscate such items as they see fit."_

The document had a signature and what looked like an official seal at the bottom… Even so, Francis looked at the weird fey suspiciously.

"Royal Guard of the Court of Stars?" he said. "Uh, I assume that's you?"

"Are you saying I'm not?" asked the creature.

_Didn't give me a straight answer, _thought Francis. _I was wondering why this guy just helped me out of the blue…_

"I've heard of the royal guard of the Fey Queen…" he said. "I believe they identify themselves to other members of the Fey Court by a special type of fey glamor that can give them a royal purple aura. If you are a member…"

"Of course I am, mortal…" he said.

His eyes glowed briefly, then a strong aura of purple light surrounded him.

"That prove it?"

Francis quickly opened the compartment on the back of his D-Wheel, put the cake in it, and then slammed it shut.

"No it, proves you're a con artist," he said. "The 'Fey Queen' I was talking about was one in an old online video game. I have no idea _how _the 'Royal Guard of the Court of Stars' identify themselves, if such a group even exists."

He drew his sword and pointed it at the guy.

"By the way, whoever wrote this document misspelled the word 'guard' and thinks 'foodstuffs' is two words, so I'm pretty sure it's a forgery. Now move!"

"Whoa… that looks sharp…" said the strange man.

He felt the point with his finger.

"Yep, very sharp…"

As he said this, he saw four or five more of the strange men around him, along with a feature he hadn't noticed on this one, their goat-like legs. Bartholomew had mentioned these guys before… Korred.

Satyrs were known for being hedonists who followed a life of debauchery and vice, but some simply went too far, gorging themselves on excess of drink that would make most of their kind sick, and sexual orgies that would make most of them blush. (Usually, this happened after some big windfall that gave them enough money to splurge for a while.) This despicable behavior led to some divine force – often their patron Dionysus, but not always – turning them into these creatures, hedonists of the pettiest sort. They hired themselves out as thugs and leg breakers to unscrupulous fey who paid them in the cheap wine and other creature comforts they sought to feed their addictions.

Still, Bartholomew had never mentioned a group of them getting _so _desperate that they'd stoop to filching pastry.

_What on earth is that cake made of, Moomoo Milk and Chansey Eggs? _he thought. _Best amscray before any real soldiers working for Morwel show up and start asking questions. _

This, of course, was the best solution. The Shadowchasers had no authority here whatsoever, and if Morwel _did _rule this part of the Feywild, well… Reports on her were varied on how easy it was to get on her bad side, but they all agreed you did _not _want to do that.

He turned and leapt on the D-Wheel, then hit the ignition.

"Don't bother kid," said the first korred, "I…"

Before he could say anything else, Francis hit the gas, speeding away and leaving the ugly few coughing in a cloud of exhaust.

The one he had been talking to hit the one next to him with his hat.

"I told you to make sure it wouldn't start, Mr. Pix!" he shouted.

"Maybe _you'd _like to try breaking through the security on that thing, Mr. Pux?" he asked.

"Don't just stand there, you two!" ordered a third one.

The two of them straightened their overalls, as the third produced a long cudgel.

"He won't get far…" he said, as it started to produce a luminescent green glow.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Francis was rushing down the forest road at full speed, and it was almost like a tunnel. He eventually came to a fork; not knowing which way to turn, he went left.

Then he came to another one, and turned right.

_What's going on? _he thought, as he saw another one ahead.

Then he heard a motor behind him. He looked in his rearview mirror, and saw that those two guys who had called themselves Pix and Pux were on his tail in the _most _unlikely of motorcycles. It looked like an old World War II era DCW motorcycle with a sidecar, and old enough to be _built _in that era.

_What's holding that thing together, _he thought, _duct tape?_

Amazingly, however, it was actually _gaining _on his brand-new Momentum-powered model.

"Need directions, kid?" asked the one in the sidecar. "I should warn you, this ain't called the Bunglewood for nothing…"

_Okay, okay… _thought Francis. _Concentrate on your goal…_

Then the one in the sidecar chanted something unintelligible, and a tree by the side of the road in front of Francis reached down with a long branch. He swerved and spun in a full circle to avoid it.

_Easier said than done… _he thought. _Wait…_

"Hey, Rumpelstiltskin!" he shouted. "If it's a fight you want…"

"Oh, I do!" laughed the korred.

"Fine…" said Francis.

He took a card from his shirt pocket and held it up so they could see it.

"Want to do it my way?"

"Uh, Mr. Pix, I don't think this is a good idea…" said the one who was driving.

"Just watch where you're driving, Mr. Pux!" replied the other one. "I'll handle this guy."

Then he stood up on the sidecar, and a Duel Disk the size of a decent-sized shield appeared on his arm, made of some sort of wood.

Francis typed a code on his dashboard, and the whole panel changed.

"_**Duel Mode engaged," **_said the computerized voice. _**"Activating Speed World 2 Field Spell."**_

As the card appeared in the center of the console, the silvery astral border formed on the side of the road, and that rush came to Francis that he felt when he did this…

_Let's hope these two are as gullible as they look, _he thought, _and I can pull this off without ruining the cake in the process…_

**(Francis: 8,000, SPC: 0) - - - - - - - - - - (Pux: 8,000, SPC: 0)**

"Let's make it interesting kid," said Pix. "First one to reach the next fork goes first."

Francis looked ahead hard as Pix pulled up beside him.

"Fine by me…" he said.

Then he stepped on the gas, and as expected, one of the trees reached out with a branch to block his path. However, Francis drew his sword from his hip, and with one swipe, lopped it off. The tree howled, and Francis soared past.

"HEY!" shouted Pix.

Francis reached the fork, and made a sharp turn left.

"Cheaters only cheat themselves wise guy," he said, making a draw. "As Dugan always says, and besides, you can't fool the former AMA Motorcross Championship runner-up with a move like that. So I'm going first…"

He drew a card, then placed it with the other five on the space next to his left glove.

"I'll start by summoning Masked Dragon," he said, as he played a card.

A ring of flames opened behind him, and a small, rust-red Dragon with metallic scales and an iron mask over its face flew out. (1,400 ATK)

"Only the runner-up, eh?" said Pix.

"It's a _tournament, _stupid!" shouted Francis. "Not one race!"

He threw another card on his console, and a set card appeared beside the bike, then faded from view.

"There, go ahead…"

Pix drew a card as each Speed Counter ticked up to 1 and the two vehicles accelerated slightly.

"Whatever you say," he said, "I'm summoning Diamond Heart."

There was a brilliant flash, and a hulking humanoid figure that looked like a man made entirely of solid diamond appeared on the road in front Francis and his monster. (1,400 ATK)

"Whoa, that's one expensive monster," he quipped.

"Aye, it would seem like a shame to break it," said Pix, "but hell with it…"

The diamond man aimed a punch at Masked Dragon, but it spouted fire in return. Both monsters broke into little shards.

"How long have you played this game?" asked Francis. "I can use Masked Dragon's effect to bring out another weak Dragon, like a second one…"

Indeed, a twin of the first Dragon appeared in a plume of smoke. (1,400 ATK)

"My monster may lack such an ability," said the korred, "but seeing as he's an Earth monster, I can banish him to call out The Rock Spirit."

As two of them swerved right at the next fork, the ground ahead ripped open, and a man in armor and a Spartan helmet, holding a ruby-tipped mace leapt out. (1,700 ATK) Francis veered again to avoid him, dodging under another limb from one of the nasty trees.

Pix set one of his cards, and then giggled a little.

"Turn end…" he said. "Maybe you should stop and ask for directions…"

"Don't have to…" said Francis, as his Trap Card spun around 180. "I use Burst Breath!"

Super-intense fire blasted from Masked Dragon, covering the Rock Spirit in a conflagration.

"By sacrificing my Dragon, all monsters with a lower Defense Score than his Attack Score are toast."

"Why'd I let you talk me into this?" asked Pux, nervously.

"Just keep your eye on the road, Mr. Pux!" ordered Pix.

"My move!" shouted Francis, making a draw.

**(F: 8,000, SPC: 2) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 8,000, SPC: 2)**

"Now you've got double the trouble, because I'm bringing Twin-Headed Behemoth out!"

A very different portal, one that created a rush of win, opened, and a two-headed Dragon with wings, horns on each head, and mauve scales flew out. (1,500 ATK)

Then it made a U-turn, and flew towards Pix and Pux's ride…Pix tapped his Disk, and _his _Trap opened up.

"I was planning on saving this for later," he muttered, "but… I use Release from Stone! Since I banished Diamond Heart last time, I can summon him now…"

There was another brilliant flash, and the gemstone golem appeared again, this time crossing its arms over its face. (2,000 DEF)

"In that case…" said Francis.

He snatched two cards from the holder.

"I'm sending Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Storms and a second Wind monster from my hand to the Graveyard…"

He slipped that card and anther into a slot on his console.

"…and in return for that, I can take _this _from my deck!"

He lifted the card up so the two korred could see it, a Level 7 monster called Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos.

"So?" replied Pux. "That's too powerful. You'd need to trade _two _monsters to summon it."

"Maybe, maybe not," replied Francis, "but I'm not going to summon it right now anyway…"

He placed the card with the others, then took the last two that were there, and flipped them onto his dashboard; one appeared to either side of him, then faded. He shifted gears, and took a sharp turn to the right.

Then he looked up. At least the moon seemed immune to whatever fey magic these guys were using.

_Assuming the moon follows the same rules in this weird place as it does in my world, _he thought, _and assuming the eight o'clock on my watch means it's the same time here… Then the moon is in the east right now, so I should at least be moving in the _direction _of the Forest Gate…_

_Of course, those are pretty iffy assumptions… I'll _never _figure out how the Feywild works…_

"My move, mortal," said Pix, making a draw. The Speed Counters went up slightly again, and he swapped cards on his Disk.

"I'll get rid of Diamond Heart," he said, as the gem-man turned into a blast of shards, "to summon Big Piece Golem!"

The whole path rumbled, and again, a large stone monster appeared out of the ground on the road ahead of Francis. At least he recognized this one; it was a blocky granite boulder with stubby arms and legs and a dour face in front. (2,100 ATK)

"Crush that Dragon!" he shouted.

Francis and Behemoth managed to speed past it, but Big Piece Golem rolled into a ball, and bowled after them, catching up to Behemoth and crushing it underneath, literally. Francis' D-Wheel shivered slightly.

**(F: 7,400, SPC: 3) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 8,000, SPC: 3)**

"I'll throw this down for later," said the ugly fey with a chuckle.

A new set card appeared in front of their bike.

"So whatcha gonna do now?" asked Pix. "This old fashioned Dragon Deck doesn't seem to be cutting the mustard."

"I'm gonna stop fooling around," said Francis. "Since you just ended your turn, Behemoth makes a recovery…"

Several small pieces of purple rock and leather floated up and together, turning into Behemoth again. (1,000 ATK) Then Francis drew, and the D-Wheel went a little faster.

"Remember when you said this guy needed two sacrifices?" he asked. "Not necessarily. I can summon a Dragon Ruler without _any _sacrifices, so long as I banish two monsters from my Graveyard. Of course, they can't be _any _monsters. They either have to be Dragons or monsters of the same Attribute as the monster I want to summon.

"So… I'll banish one Masked Dragon and Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms… And by the way, when Tempest is banished, I get to use another effect, and take a Wind Monster from my deck. I could have summoned Blaster last turn, but a Dragon Ruler can only use one of its effects per turn."

A card – it was Influence Dragon – appeared with his other three.

"Now, I'm not going to summon Blaster just yet… The Dragon I'm summoning first… Is Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls!"

There was a crashing, cascading rush, and geysers erupted around Francis as he sped down the path, and a _huge _winged Dragon that seemed sculpted entirely out of liquid flew over his bike. (2,600 ATK)

"Next," he said, as his set card activated, "I use my Trap, Immortal Dragon. I can summon either a monster in my Graveyard or a banished one."

"A banished one?" asked Pux. "Didn't he just…"

"That's right fellah," said Francis. "I banished Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms to summon Tidal!"

There was lightning, fierce winds, and the smell of ozone, and a second Dragon flew to the opposite side, It was just as big as Tidal, but with green scales that had electricity coursing over them. (2,400 ATK)

"Oh, we are so dead…" groaned Pux.

"Keep your eyes on the road!" shouted Pix. He took his hat off and smacked his partner with it.

"Wow, that's sure going to help him," replied Francis. "I sacrifice Tidal and Twin-Headed Behemoth…"

The small Dragon and the huge, watery Dragon turned into blue and green orbs of vapor.

"Blaster, Dragon Ruler of the Infernos!"

Eruptions of flame blasted out of the path around his bike as he darted down the road, and the evil trees howled in fear as a flaming red Dragon joined Tempest. Its back and wings looked like a cracked surface of a cooling lava flow, and its eyes were like pools of fiery, molten rock. (2,800 ATK)

"You called my Dragons 'old fashioned'?" asked Francis. "Dragons aren't just fancy monsters… As the boss says, they're _a force of nature!"_

"I believe you…" said Pix.

"Destroy that Golem with Cataclysmic Thunder!"

The Dragon let out a bellow, and forks of lightning flashed across the sky, a huge one crashing down on Big Piece Golem and reducing it to powder. Pux swerved and their bike spun around before he regained his bearings.

"Now, Blaster, while they're still stunned!" shouted Francis, "direct attack with Savage Immolation!"

Blaster flew upwards, then turned towards the two korred. Then slammed on the brakes, then shifted, and sped backwards, but the powerful, fiery missile struck them hard…

**(F: 7,400, SPC: 4) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 4,900, SPC: 4)**

Francis turned his back to the screams, and a mental block seemed to disappear with a snap, the haze in front of him clearing. He saw a light up ahead.

_It worked! _he thought. _Seems they had to concentrate just as much as I did…_

He flicked some switches on his dashboard, and the D-Wheel's odometer edged as far as the Speed Counters he had would allow as it sped towards the now-revealed forest gate. A few of the nasty trees tries to reach for him but he ducked and dodged, finally driving through a doorway of light with the sound of shattering glass, propelling his bike into the air into the other side…

He landed on the pavement of the interstate outside, a little harder than he would have liked, but he quickly managed to right his bike and keep going. As Dugan had often said, any landing you can walk away from is a good one. Especially since his two Dragons were still flying alongside him…

Then he realized something… That meant that his opponents _still _hadn't given up, a realization that was confirmed when he glanced in his rear-view mirror and saw the two-man D-Wheel speed out of the gate behind him.

"You guys just won't quit, will you?" he asked.

"Why should we?" asked Pix. "This is gettin' fun!"

_Bad guys like this are like Cajun food, _he thought, _it takes forever for the bad feeling they leave to go away. Never like take-out Chinese, where you're hungry again in an hour._

"Eh, suit yourself…" He said. He took another of his cards, and set it in his Spell Zone.

"Just remember, we're about twenty minutes from Chicago, give or take… It's your move…"

Pix shifted, and moved his rise beside Francis, then drew as the Counters moved up again.

**(F: 7,400, SPC: 5) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 4,900, SPC: 5)**

One of his Trap Cards lifted.

"I'm using Daring Prospector," he said, "which means if I manage to Special Summon at least two Level 5 or higher Rocks this turn, I get to draw twice at the _end _of my turn. And here's the first…"

His second Trap, Call of the Haunted, lifted up, and Big Piece Golem reappeared. (2,100 ATK)

"Then, I have more than enough Speed Counters to use Speed Spell – Speed Fusion!" he exclaimed. "I'll fuse Big Piece and Medium Piece to summon my Multiple Piece!"

A small golem made on unhewn rock appeared, and both dissolved into the ether of Speed World. Then a _huge _golem that looked like a brick wall with arms, legs, and a head appeared in front of Francis.

_Seems like he already managed to summon two, _he thought. _Well, good…_

The huge Golem jammed its first into Tempest, and the large Dragon shattered with a gust of wind and a crackle of static.

"Next, I can use this big guy's effect," said Pix, "and get rid of him to summon Big Piece and Medium Piece."

A large crack formed down the middle of the golem, and it split apart. Big Piece Golem rose from the rubble (2,100 ATK) followed by Medium Piece Golem. (1,100 ATK)

"Which means I can bring Small Piece Golem out too!" he laughed.

A pint-sized golem shaped like a tree stump joined the others, with a curious pair of eyes. (1,100 ATK)

"Heh, heh, kind of like the Three Bears!"

"Does that made you Goldilocks?" asked Francis.

Pix didn't answer for a minute. Then he noticed Pux was laughing softly.

"Who asked you?" he shouted. Then he turned back to Francis. "I'm ending my turn, and because I was able to summon _three _Level 5 or higher Rocks, I get to draw twice…"

As he made two draws, Francis swerved ninety degrees to face him and then _his _Trap lifted up.

"I'm very happy for you," he said, "because now I can reduce my Speed Counters by two to use Nurse the Turns, and draw the same number of cards!"

**(F: 7,200, SPC: 3) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 4,900, SPC: 5)**

He drew twice, then turned his D-Wheel as he slowed a bit.

"So thanks a heap…"

"Why you little…" said Pix.

"And now it's my move…" continued Francis.

He made another draw, as his D-Wheel started to regain speed.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

As he was doing so, someone was watching from a ridge overhead with an odd set of binoculars.

"Magnify," he said.

The binoculars centered in for a closer look on Francis, and then on his opponent.

"_Yes, it's them all right," _said a seductive, female voice. _"Should we…"_

"Naw, not yet…" said the reply. "Not until we have to…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Tempest may be down by he isn't out, you two," said Francis.

Two cards, Tidal's and the other Masked Dragon, appeared in front of him and then crumbled into dust.

"…so long I have two Dragons in the Graveyard, a Dragon Ruler is _never _gonna say die!"

Lightning flashed again, and Tempest roared onto the field once more. (2,400 ATK)

"Oh, rocketty-ricketts!" shouted Pix.

"Also, because I just banished Tidal, I can take a Water-Attribute Dragon from my deck…"

Again, a card appeared with his others (this time, it was Mythic Water Dragon).

_I'll save that one for later… _he thought.

Then Tempest blew burning lightning, blowing Big Piece Golem to little pieces for the second time.

"Smudge and blaze!" cursed Pix.

Then Blaster followed up, incinerating Medium Piece Golem.

"Hippikaloric!" shouted Pix.

"Okay, I'm not well-versed on fey obscenities, but, uhm…" said Francis. "Forget it, I don't even wanna know. It's your move…"

**(F: 7,200, SPC: 4) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 3,400, SPC: 6)**

"All right, mortal…" grumbled the ugly fey.

He drew, his Counters edging up to 7.

"I'll move Small Piece Golem to Defense Mode," he said, as the little Golem covered itself with its free hand (0 DEF), "then summon this guy in offense… Rockstone Warrior!"

There was a tremor, and a far angrier-looking golem ripped out of the pavement ahead, an armored one made of granite with glowing eyes. (1,800 ATK)

"Let's see your Dragon stand up to this," said Pix. "I use Speed Spell – Speed Energy! It gives my monster 200 extra points this turn for every Speed Counter I have, and that's 1,400 more!"

(3,200 ATK)

_Okay, that's trouble… _thought Francis.

The two Dragons snarled as the Golem closed in on it, then slammed its fist into Blaster's snout with a punch that made Francis' D-Wheel quiver. He groaned a little as he sped past and Blaster collapsed, falling into a pile of ashes and soot.

**(F: 6,800, SPC: 5) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 3,400, SPC: 7)**

"I'll set two and I'm done," said Pix, as two reversed cards appeared in his Spell Zone.

_Okay, now these guys just aren't funny, _said Francis, as he made a draw.

The card was the fourth core member of his team, Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders.

_That's the one… _he thought.

"I'm sending Redox and Hardened Armed Dragon to my Graveyard," he said, as he discarded the two cards, "and by doing so, I can Special Summon a monster from it…"

"What? _Any _monster?" gasped Pix.

"That's right, _any _monster," replied Francis, "but don't worry, I think I'll give Blaster a break for now. The monster I want to summon is the one I discarded along with Tempest a while ago…

"I summon the Draconic Prophet of Chan!"

There was another surge of wind, and an odd, female figure flew out in front of his D-Wheel. She was wearing an exotic-looking, decorated, green dress, had floor-length, green hair, and carried a staff with a crescent-shaped tip, with an emerald between the points. Most remarkably, she wore a mask over her face with no features; it was a completely blank slate covering her face. (1,800 ATK)

"Who in the world…" said Pux. "Who's Chan?"

"Well… Don't strain your brain thinking…" replied Pix. He really had no idea either, and was more worried about this Spellcaster – he assumed – then he would admit.

"Worry when she attacks your Small Piece Golem with Chain Lighting," replied Francis. "I'm pretty sure she can overcome its Defense Points, seeing as it doesn't have any…"

The Prophet lifted her staff, and a bolt of electricity flashed, blowing the small Golem to little bits.

"Now for the bigger one…" he said.

Tempest roared again, and aimed his mighty blast at Rockstone Warrior. Unfortunately, Pix was ready this time, and one of his two Traps lifted and spun around.

"CRUD!" shouted Francis, when he saw what it was. The two Magic Cylinders appeared in mid-air, one of them catching the blast, the second spiting it out and sending it crashing into the front of his bike.

**(F: 4,400, SPC: 6) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 3,400, SPC: 8)**

Francis moaned a little… He only _wished _that was the first time he had walked into something like that…

"I'll set one card and it's your turn…" he grumbled, placing a reversed card in his Spell Zone.

Pix drew and looked at the card carefully.

"Mr. Pix, watch it…" said his partner. "You told the boss you'd be careful with that one…"

"I'm being careful, Mr. Pux…" replied Pix.

Pux groaned, remembering the last time he had heard _that._

"I'm using the effect of Speed World 2," he said, speaking up, "I'll reduce my Counters by 7 to draw once…"

Their bike decelerated and fell behind Francis' as he made a draw. Then he set one of his cards in his Spell Zone.

"That ought to… do it… for now…"

Francis drew, then thought for a moment.

**(F: 4,400, SPC: 8) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 3,400, SPC: 3)**

_Well, if the show fits, _he thought.

"In that case, _I'll _use the same effect," he said.

His D-Wheel slowed, and fell behind even further, then he drew. A twinkle in his eye appeared under his visor.

"First thing I'm doing," he said, "is using Castle of Dragon Souls."

His face-down card turned around, revealing a Continuous Trap.

"When I activate this card, I can banish a Dragon from my Graveyard, and then increase the Attack Score of one on the field by 700 points. I'm choosing my Prophet."

(2,500 ATK)

"Huh?" said Pux. "She's a Dragon?"

"Not all the time," replied Francis. "Only on the field. But before I attack with her, I can discard a monster to recover a Dragon from my Graveyard. Of course, the monster I discard has to be a Wind monster, but the one I recover can be _any _Dragon.

"And don't forget, because I banished Redox, I've got another Dragon to use…"

He took Golem Dragon – because that was what the card he had chosen – and placed it with the others. Then he took Blaster from the slot once again."

"Next, I'm banishing my other Masked Dragon and Hardened Armed Dragon to… Well, you should know how this works by now…"

Again, there was an eruption of fire, and Blaster appeared again. (2,800 ATK)

"Now destroy that Rockstone Warrior!" he shouted. "Get it!"

Pix let out a long sigh, and then one of his two set cards lifted up.

"This may not be the right time for this," he said, "but I'll use this now…"

"Earthshaker?" asked Francis, looking at the card on his screen.

"That's right," replied Pix. "I name two Attributes, and you choose one of them. Then all monsters of the named Attribute are destroyed.

"I'll name Wind and Fire… Now, you can…"

"I name Wind," said Francis.

Both Pix and Pux were so surprised they almost screeched to a halt.

"You _sure?" _shouted Pix. "But…"

"Positive…" replied Francis.

Then both Tempest and Prophet shattered.

"Now why did he choose to destroy two of his monsters, you may ask, when he could have only destroyed one?" he said with a smirk. "Well Prophet has another trick of her own. You see, when she's destroyed, I get to summon one of my banished Dragons in Defense Mode."

A bulky, rocky Dragon appeared next to Blaster, grumbling with the sound of a low tremor. (3,000 DEF)

"Now that I have Redox on the field," he said, "let's continue…"

Once more, the super-hot blast of flame from Blaster shot at the rocky fighter, shattering it.

"I suppose it's time to let the cat out of the bag," said Pix. "When Rockstone Warrior is destroyed, I take no damage. _And, _I get to summon these two Tokens."

Two more statues that looked like shorter, swatter versions of Rockstone Warrior appeared where the larger one had been. (0 DEF x2)

Francis looked at his set card, then his Continuous Trap, then his hand. He was starting to get a strategy, and hoped it would work.

"Your move…" he said.

Pix made a draw… Then his face turned into a sour puss as he sniggered.

**(F: 4,400, SPC: 2) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 3,400, SPC: 4)**

"Got the right card, Mr. Pix?" said Pux.

"Indeed I do, Mr. Pux," laughed Pix, "I'm sending a second Big Piece Golem to the Graveyard to summon Power Giant!"

He discarded the card, and a huge statue made of crystalline stone with armor made of gems and more sharp gems protruding from every joint. (2,200 ATK)

"That means its Level is reduced from 6 to 1. Then I banish both of my Big Piece Golems to use the Trap Card, Mother Load, which means I can summon not one, but _two _Rocks from my Graveyard. Of course, they can't attack, and should they still be here at the end of the turn, I take 4,000 points of damage."

His last set card spun around, and both Diamond Heart (1,400 ATK) and Small Piece Golem (1,100 ATK) rose out of a crack in the pavement.

_Six… _thought Francis, counting. _Seven, eight… nine… aw, man…_

"But they won't…" continued Pix, "Because I'm tuning _all five _of these monsters together! Mr. Pux, if you would…"

As the five Rocks flew into the sky, Mr. Pux lifted his cudgel and started to chant, and oddly-colored lightning flashed in the night sky.

"_Moon of the Fey Realm, hear my words well, bring yonder lightning, give spark to my spell…"_

**(*2 + *2 + *3 + *1 + *1 = *9)**

"Good grief, now they're using nursery rhymes!" shouted Francis.

Still, the korred continued.

"_Shining moonbeams, soft and pliant, send to us a mighty giant!"_

Lightning struck all five of the monsters in quick succession, and the entire highway shook and buckled. Francis barely managed to swerve out of the way as a big – or rather _enormous _giant made of stone rose out of the earth…

Actually, it looked like a huge stone castle with arms and legs, one standing over a hundred feet tall. It started to trudge towards him, each step causing the ground to shake. (2,900 ATK)

_Oh… my God… _said Francis.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"_Now?" _said the sultry female voice.

"Now!" said the young man.

He put the binoculars away, and leapt on his own D-Wheel.

"_That's the Giganticastle, you realize," _she replied. _"A very powerful Synchro Monster."_

"I know what it is," he replied, as he stepped on the gas.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_It's like the Rock of Gibraltar came to life… _thought Francis, looking at the huge Duel Monster.

"You don't see so smarmy now, mortal," said Pix. "You see, Giganticastle gains 200 Attack Points for each non-Tuner I used to summon it."

(3,700 ATK)

"But that's just the half of it… Because I used Diamond Heart as a Tuner, and all of its Materials were Rocks, it gains 500 more Attack Points this turn for each of those non-Tuners.

(5,700 ATK)

_This is gonna hurt… _thought Francis, as Giganticastle lifted its huge foot.

"I activate Malevolent Catastrophe!" he shouted, as his Trap Card lifted. "I'll destroy all Spells and Traps on the field, including my Castle of Dragon Souls!

Giganticastle stomped down with its mighty foot, crushing Tempest under its heel. This time, Francis nearly crashed, struggling to keep his bike upright.

"By doing that," he groaned, "I get to summon one of my banished Dragons… So once again, here's Tidal!"

The watery Dragon Ruler flew out the portal, this time beside Redox. (2,600 ATK)

"What's it gonna take to get rid of those ugly things?" shouted Pix.

"Who you calling ugly?" asked Francis. "It's pretty damn _hard _to get rid of them. People these days think Dragons are pushovers, but they never read the older stories, how they were able to lay waste to whole cities by themselves. You think one big rock is going to stop them?

"Beowulf was a great hero who slew Grendel and his mother, but what was the monster that finally killed him? The monster that may well doomed his kingdom if he'd not have had help to kill it? Think about it."

He drew a card, and Giganticastle returned to a Score of 3,700.

"Watch and learn…"

**(F: 1,500, SPC: 3) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 2,400, SPC: 5)**

"I summon Draconic Prophet of Zaaman Rul!" he shouted.

As he played the card, a flaming orb shot down from above, turning into a new Spellcaster; this one was male, with scarlet robes covered with flame patterns, long, maroon hair, the same faceless mask that Chan had, and a similar staff, but one with a ruby. (1,800 ATK)

"How many of these guys are there?" asked Pux.

"None of your business," replied Francis, "and by sending Magna Drago from my hand to the Graveyard, I can recover a Dragon again, but this time, I think I'll choose Tempest."

He discarded the card, and quickly recovered another.

"And because I sent Magna Drago there, I can banish it and Blaster to summon Tempest again…"

Pix shivered a little, as the third Dragon appeared, but Pux slapped him.

"Easy!" he said. "Giganticastle can stand up to them…"

"Not if I use the Overlay Network," said Francis, "and use Tempest, Blaster, and Tidal…"

The black hole tore open above the highway, and the Dragon Rulers of Wind, Fire, and Water soared through.

"…to Xyz Summon Prismatic Dragon Ailamere!"

The monstrous creature that appeared was a Dragon that seemed almost translucent. She – it was clearly female – glided through the night sky overhead, her soft, beautiful scales reflecting the moonlight and shining all the bright, scintillating colors of the spectrum. She looked at the two korred, with a gentle smile and a twinkle in her eye (2,900 ATK)

"First of all," said Francis, "she gains every Attribute of the monsters I Overlayed to Xyz summon her."

"Three Attributes?" gasped Pux.

"Nope, four," replied Francis. "She keeps her own Attribute, Light, and that's the important part right now. You see, by getting rid of an Overlay Unit, I can Special Summon another Dragon, so long as it matches one of her Attributes."

"Right…" said Pix. "And just what do you have that can stand up to our giant?"

Francis grinned. Then he held up a card with his free hand and flipped it around.

"WHAT?" shouted Pux. "You _can't! _It isn't fair!"

"Yeah, well, tough rocks pal," replied Francis. "With Ailamere's effect, I summon Soul Drain Dragon!"

There was a loud scream as the biggest Dragon of all swooped down. With a wingspan of nearly five-hundred feet, you could barely make out its demonic features and spiked carapace as it blocked out the sun. (4,000 ATK)

"Tear down that castle!" shouted Francis. "Crushing Wave of the Vortex!"

The Dragon's breath could best be describes as darkness concentrated into a pulsating beam. It crashed right into the center of the enormous giant, and it shuddered, then cracked…

Francis and the two korred sped underneath as the Giganticastle fell apart, and stone rained down on the highway. The Shadowchaser dodged most of it, but the two fey crooks weren't so lucky.

"This is impossible!" shouted Pix.

"Oh, it's gonna get even worse," replied Francis. "Ailamere, finish them off with Prismatic Spray!"

The Prismatic Dragon readied the attack, and multicolored streams flowed from her jowls. The two korred screamed in pain…

**(F: 1,500, SPC: 3) - - - - - - - - - - (P: 0, SPC: 0)**

Not only had their old-fashioned makeshift D-Wheel been forced to a halt, it looked like it was ready to fall apart.

"I'm seein' colors here…" groaned Pux.

"Yeah, black and blue!" cursed Pix.

He slapped his partner with his hat, and then the whole vehicle collapsed, falling apart into a pile of junk.

Meanwhile, Francis had dismounted his D-Wheel, and was looking at them as he crossed his arms with a frown. The two korred looked at him with angry scowls.

"You little…" cursed Pix. "You have any idea how much that cost?"

"Waste not, want not…" replied Francis.

"I'm takin' it outta your ass!" shouted Pix. He lifted his cudgel and made a rush for him… But then he screamed again, as electricity hit him, knocking him down.

Francis turned around slightly, and saw a human male a few years older than he was, dressed in silvery fabric and a jean jacket, along with a glove over his left hand covered with odd-looking circuits. He had silver, opaque shades covering his eyes.

Then he took them off, and the distinguishing mark of the Shadowchasers was visible. Francis stepped aside as he walked towards the now _very _frightened korred.

"Well, well, Mr. Pux and Mr. Pix," he said.

"Uh…" said the first one, shivering.

"I thought after what happened last time, Queen Morwel promised you two wouldn't bother humans anymore," said the odd man. "And _you _promised you'd quit the legbreaker-for-hire business."

"Well you see we were…" said Pux.

Then Pix slapped him on the side of the head.

"I mean we and the other guys were…" he started.

Then Pix slapped him again.

"I'm not amused," replied the young man. "Unless you want me to give her a call right now, I suggest you haul ass back where you came from!"

"Uh, you just wrecked our bike…" replied Pix.

"Then start walking…" he replied.

The two quickly turned around, and moved quickly in the other direction.

"Faster!" he ordered.

The two korred broke into a sprint. Francis finally spoke up.

"So, uh, how long were you watching?" he asked.

"About ten minutes or so," came the reply with a grin. "I was thinking of helping, but you were doing a pretty good job. Glad to see Dugan still has everything running smoothly."

Francis laughed nervously.

"Glad to have you back, Karl," he said.

Then he sighed, and opened the rear compartment on his bike.

"You know those guys?"

"Long story," replied the other Shadowchaser. "I see not much has changed since I was gone… What did they want?"

"This, apparently," replied Francis.

He lifted the packaged cake out, and held it up.

"What the hell is so _special _about this cake? Is it magic, cursed? Contraband?"

"Let's find out," said Karl. "SAL… See if you can analyze the ingredients."

"_I'm on it, Karl," _said the voice of the sexy AI coming from his glove. In the past five years, Karl had upgraded his partner several times, making her hundreds of times more powerful and far more portable, but her friendly and affectionate personality was still intact.

"I see she's back too," said Francis.

"_I'm glad you approve," _said SAL in a snarky tone. Then there was a small hum. _"Let's see… Milk, flour, sugarcane molasses… Obviously they used old-fashioned ingredients here…_

"_Eggs, butter, vanilla, baking powder… Cocoa…_

"_Well, Karl, I can't say whoever ran the shop cared much for watching the calories, but it seems safe… WAIT…"_

"Wait what?" asked Francis.

"_Open the box…" _said SAL. _"There's something in it _besides _the cake…"_

Francis looked at Karl, then carefully opened the cake box. The two Shadowchasers looked into it. Indeed, there was something shiny tucked between the cake and the side of the box. Karl took a pen from the pocket of his jeans, and carefully fished it out.

The small object had icing on it, but when he wiped it off, it was the oddest of gemstones, about the size of a walnut and shaped like a marble. It looked metallic blue, and seemed to shimmer and vibrate as they looked at it, turning rose-colored briefly before turning back to blue.

"What is it?" asked Francis.

Karl didn't answer. Then he said, "Uh…"

"_If the question you're about to ask is, 'Is it magical?' then the answer is 'yes',"_ replied SAL. _"But as for what it is and what it does… I have no clue…"_

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**SPEED SPELL – SPEED ENERGY (Spell Card)**

**Normal Speed Spell**

**Image: **A D-Wheel appearing as a blur as it moves through the vortex of Speed World.

**Effect: **Activate when you have 2 or more Speed Counters. Select 1 face-up monster; until the End Phase of the turn, it gains 200 ATK for every Speed Counter you have,

_Note: "Speed Spell – Speed Energy" was first used by Yusei in the "Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds" episode "The Synchro Solution"._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**SPEED SPELL – SPEED FUSION (Spell Card)**

**Normal Speed Spell**

**Image: **Dark Magician and Flame Swordsman in the foreground with Dark Flare Knight in the background, all of them surrounded by the vortex of Speed World.

**Effect: **Activate when you have 4 or more Speed Counters. Select 1 Fusion Monster in your Extra Deck, and send from your hand or your side of the field the monsters listed as Fusion Material for a Fusion Summon of that monster; Special Summon the selected monster. (This is considered a Fusion Summon.

_Note: "Speed Spell – Speed Fusion" was first used by Jack in the "Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds" episode "A Blast from the Past (Part 1)"._

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**DARING PROSPECTOR (Trap Card)**

**Normal Trap**

**Image: **A fat, goofy-looking miner with a beard, wearing overalls, a red shirt, and a helmet with a light on it, lowering himself down a mine shaft carrying several bundles of TNT. Two Enraged Muka Mukas and three Small Piece Golems are watching him from the shaft walls.

**Effect:** Activate only during your Main Phase 1. If you Special Summon 2 or more Level 5 or higher Rock-Type monsters this turn, draw 2 cards during your End Phase. If you do not, reduce your Life Points by half.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**NURSE THE TURNS (Trap Card)**

**Normal Trap**

**Image: **Avatar of the Pot on a D-Wheel making a sharp turn while speeding past Goblin of Greed, dowsing him with water from a mud puddle.

**Card Description: **Activate when your opponent draws cards outside his Draw Phase; reduce your Speed Counters by 2, and draw the same number of cards your opponent does.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**MOTHER LOAD (Trap Card)**

**Normal Trap**

**Image: **The same miner in "Daring Prospector", peering into a cavern full of weird, glowing, red gemstones.

**Effect:** Banish 2 Level 5 or higher Rock-Type monsters from your Graveyard; then, select 2 Level 3 or lower Rock-Type monsters from your Graveyard and Special Summon them. The selected monsters cannot be used for an Xyz Summon, cannot attack, and if you control either monster during the End Phase, you take 4,000 points of damage.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**DIAMOND HEART (Monster Card)**

**Rock/Earth/Tuner/Effect/Lvl3/1,400ATK/1,800DEF**

**Effect: **If this card is used as a Tuner for a Synchro Summoning in which every non-Tuner monster used is a Rock-Type monster, increase the ATK of the Synchro Monster by 500 points per non-Tuner until the End Phase of the turn.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**DRACONIC PROPHET OF CHAN (Monster Card)**

**Spellcaster/Wind/Effect/Lvl4/1,800ATK/900DEF**

**Effect: **This card is considered a Dragon-Type monster if face-up on the field. Once per turn, you may discard 1 WIND monster from your hand to add 1 Dragon-Type monster from your Graveyard to your hand. If this card is destroyed by your opponent (either through battle or via card effect) select 1 of your banished Dragon-Type monsters and Special Summon it in Defense Mode.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**DRACONIC PROPHET OF ZAAMAN RHUL (Monster Card)**

**Spellcaster/Fire/Effect/Lvl4/1,800ATK/900DEF**

**Effect: **This card is considered a Dragon-Type monster if face-up on the field. Once per turn, you may discard 1 FIRE monster from your hand to add 1 Dragon-Type monster from your Graveyard to your hand. If this card is destroyed by your opponent (either through battle or via card effect) select 1 of your banished Dragon-Type monsters and Special Summon it in Defense Mode.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**PRISMATIC DRAGON AILAMERE (Monster Card)**

**Dragon/Light/Effect/Rank7/2,900ATK/5,500DEF**

_3 Level 7 Dragon-Type monsters of different Attributes_

**Effect: **This card is considered to be the Attributes listed for the Monster Cards acting as its Xyz Materials – if any – in addition to its listed per turn, you may select a Dragon-Type monster in your hand with an Attribute matching one of this card's current Attributes; then detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to Special Summon the selected monster. Its Effects are negated.

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_**Falagar: After a five-year absence, Karl had returned. He had gained his degree, and was no longer simply a Shadowjack, having learned how to mesh true wizardry with computer science and become a full-fledged Technomage. He had upgraded his loyal AI partner, and it seemed the life of the Shadowchasers had beckoned him again.**_

_**Unfortunately, his old teacher's eagerness to spare no expense for his welcoming party seemed to have caused a crisis. Francis certainly wasn't eager to go back to that bakery, and while Karl intended to have a long talk with Bartholomew, he doubted the brownie would have answers.**_

_**But for now, we must again move to another part of the world, for things were happening even further away from here than Italy was, in a place where a mystery over a hundred years old still tended to puzzle those whose jurisdiction it fell upon. **_

"_**Miracle Man" is coming soon. **_

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**Shadowchaser Files: Races**

**Skulks**

Here's the scenario. A weary traveler walks into a tavern, where a beautiful, busty serving maid starts to cuddle up to him, whispering sweet promises into his ear. Before long, he falls for her charms, and she leads him up to a room in the tavern… But right in the middle of a passionate embrace, she pulls a knife, and drives it between his shoulders, killing him.

The next morning, the killer – or someone who looks like her – flees from an angry crowd in terror. They finally corner her, and ignore her pleas of innocence, calling her a murderer and then stoning her to death.

From a safe distance, a true murderer of _two _victims watches with a sadistic grin on its face, as it changes shape from that of the serving maid to its true form, a humanoid, hairless, completely featureless creature, almost translucent and able to blend into the shadows. Then it slowly slips away, with no-one ever the wiser.

What grudge did wicked imposter have against the traveler and the serving maid? None whatsoever. Skulks are malicious beings who do it simply out of a demented idea of fun.

Indeed, few Shadowkind are crueler than skulks, a race who seem to use their shapeshifting ability to kill simply for enjoyment. Still, one old story found in some forbidden texts, including the _Tome of the Blinded Eye, _hint at an origin.

As the story goes, the skulks were once humans who were a slave class of a nation called Nibernay (likely on the Homeworld of Shadow). When the leaders of the nation formed an alliance with the goddess called the Raven Queen, much like the shadar-kai did, the slaves were left out of this agreement.

In fury, the slave class turned against their masters, with a night of rage that left the capital city in flames, the nobles, merchant princes, and slave taskmasters dead, their throats cut in their sleep.

The slaughter attracted the attention of a dark entity called Fraz-Urb'luu, a demon lord who had once been just as powerful as Demogorgon, Orcus, and Graz'zt, but a long imprisonment at the hands of a cabal of human sorcerers (which he had just escaped from) had weakened him greatly. He took these liberated slaves under his demonic wings, and as the Prince of Deception, gave them and their descendants the power of illusion to disguise themselves – so long as they promised to use it to kill humans, a race the demon lord blamed for his fall, at every opportunity.

Of course, whenever a skulk is actually caught in the act, the punishment it usually receives is _gruesome. _It is rumored, however, that some are far more powerful, and can do more than prey on drunkards and wenches. Jalal's ally Baron Wilhelm von Gottschalk once discovered the decapitated body of the demon warlord Kurland in his own fortress of molten iron. Kurland was a general of the armies of Graz'zt who had led several campaigns against the armies of Fraz-Urb'luu, suggesting a chilling possibility: powerful skulk assassins personally serving the Prince of Deception.

**Story Ideas: **Skulks aren't warriors, they're killers, and the only thing more laughable than one of them initiating a physical confrontation is one of them doing so on an enemy's terms. Like the demon lord they worship, they lack any kind of honor, and prefer to strike by ambush, using deception, seduction, trickery, traps, and poisoned weapons. If caught, they're willing to sink to bribery to save their hides and often bargaining or begging, although anyone who considers showing mercy to a skulk or helping one would be wise to remember Aesop's fable of "The Farmer and the Viper". The situation is likely to occur if anyone is so duped.

If by some chance a skulk were convinced to use Duel Monsters, it tries to use the whatever deck it thinks is the most powerful, which means trying hard to copy whatever high-ranking pro duelists use, if it can. Some would call this a lack of originality; to a skulk, it's a matter of survival.


	9. Lake of Fire

**_If you're an American voter who voted for the current American President, you probably heard angry accusations by the opposing party about how he "stole the election" using voter fraud and/or underhanded tactics._**

**_And, you may have heard that from members of your own party the last time a member of the opposing party was President. _**

**_Let me ask you something. How many Presidents have had to deal with accusations like this? Simple answer, really. ALL of them. It's nothing new, and in fact, these accusations and the vile attack ads that mud-slinging candidates have thrown at each other used to be much worse._**

**_Political conspiracy theories are older than you may think. It was no secret that Thomas Jefferson was born illegitimate, but some of his enemies said that his father was George Washington himself. (Washington was only eleven years older than Jefferson.) Abraham Lincoln was rumored to have had a homosexual affair as a young man, if not to have been outright bi. FDR was rumored to have known about the attack on Pearl Harbor in advance, not to mention having ordered the attack Nagasaki after already receiving a surrender from Japan, doing so simply to frighten the Russians. (Rather hard to do, seeing as he died even before the attack on Hiroshima, and _Truman _gave the orders for _both _attacks.) _**

**_For anyone who thinks accusing a politician of being the anti-Christ is a new tactic, guess again. Almost _every _U.S. President was accused of being one, if not the Devil himself._**

**_Even some of the most beloved of our Founding Fathers spread blatant lies, like John Adams did in this excerpt from a campaign speech referring to Jefferson:_**

_"Murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood and the nation black with crimes. Are you prepared to see your dwellings in flames? Female chastity violated? Children writhing on the pike?"_

**_He also said that Jefferson was "the son of a half-breed Indian squaw raised on hoe-cakes" and accused Alexander Hamilton, of being "a Creole bastard brat of a Scotch peddler."_**

**_Jefferson was hardly innocent either, replying by saying Adams wanted to start a war with France, that "While he's not busy importing mistresses from Europe he's trying to marry one of his sons to a daughter of King George III," and that he was "the son of a half-breed Indian squaw raised on hoe-cakes."_**

**_Florentine philosopher _****Niccolò Machiavegli once said, **"Politics is the art of lying". And when too many people believe such lies… They turn into conspiracy theories. 

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**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Lake of Fire**

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Russia. Specifically, the Tunguska region of Krasnoyarsk Krai.

The region that was most often associated with Siberia, it was a vast expanse of forest, covered with snow, pelted by chilling winds.

In the mid-part of the region, far from most towns and cities, a lone hiker dressed in cold-weather gear trudged through the forest. He wasn't having a very good time – and was starting to understand why the thought of being sent to a gulag in this part of Russia was such a feared punishment – but was trying to keep his mind occupied by humming the old tunes he knew, even though he was running out of them.

"_The toilets in the Army are the best that they can get, _

"_Last night my roommate had to go, they haven't found him yet._

"_Oh, I don't want no more of Army life, _

"_Gee mom, I wanna go home."_

He was about to sing another verse, but then yelled "OUCH!"

Then he cursed something under his breath, looked around, and sat down on an old log, setting his pack down. He pulled off his right boot and started to shake the rocks out of it.

"My mom wanted me to be a dentist…" he grumbled. "I wouldn't listen…"

"_Hank?" _said a voice from the device on his arm. _"Hank, you there?"_

Hank lifted his arm where his Duel Disk was, and tapped the switch. Like Douglas, this new system was taking a while to get used to, but it seemed simple enough.

"Talk to me," he said, in a tired voice.

"See anything yet, Hank?" asked the voice on the other end.

"No, Felix," he replied. "There's nothing here but trees, snow, and… more trees. There only people who really live here are the Evenks and a few small clans of goliaths, and I doubt they'd have anything someone would want. Someone would have to be an idiot to start trouble in a place like this. Honestly, I could find something more interesting in the Sahara Desert."

"Okay, Okay, watch it there," said Felix's voice. "Tell that to the guys we sent to Oman to deal with that really mean djinn who was causing trouble. We had to call in Rayearth to break the curse that the jerk had cast on the prince's daughter, and even then it took a week for the poor girl's skin to clear up.

"I know these trips to Sky Monastery aren't the most desirable of jobs, but as you know, the yikaria would _love _to seize back control of it from the monks, and we're under an obligation to check on them…"

"Yeah every four months," replied Hank. "We aren't due for another six weeks…"

"Every four months or if reasonable cause exists that there's a threat," replied the voice, "and as my source claims, a few have been sneaking around that area."

"You trust him on that?" asked Hank. "You'd think a bunk of eight-foot tall guys with the heads of yaks would be hard to miss."

"We can't take the risk, Hank," said the voice. "They may look funny, but as we both know, they're some of the most powerful elementalist wizards around, and them getting ahold of that place again is the last thing we need. Besides, there might be a few things to see. You're pretty close to the site where that… Thing crashed way back when…"

"What… The Tunguska Event of 1908?" asked Hank.

He looked around. Indeed, he was in that area, where well over a hundred years ago, something had crashed from the sky, something that had stuck with the power of a small nuclear bomb, despite the fact it was long before such weapons had been invented yet. It left no crater, but it did leave a fifty-foot mile radius area of burnt, scorched trees. Miraculously, it had happened in an uninhabited area, so no-one was hurt, but if it had crashed in a place like Moscow or St. Petersburg… It was frightening to think of what may have happened.

Most scientists – both those who studied the crude theories of the time and modern ones – assumed it had been a meteor, but that didn't stop wild mass guessing…

"Come on, Felix you don't actually believe that story about Nikola Tesla being some mad scientist who caused it by building a death ray?"

"Well, there has been a lot of research since then," said Felix, "and so much has been debunked, but you never know… Maybe they missed something…"

"Right, maybe you're going to tell me the story about Nibiru crashing into Earth?" sighed Hank. "I'll talk to you later…"

He turned the communicator off.

_Guy really needs to get out more, _he thought.

He picked up his pack and his walking stick, then started to hike northward again… Then he stopped.

He was closer than he thought to that incident they just spoke about. In fact, he was pretty sure this part of the forest was "ground zero", so to speak.

He looked around. He was in the middle of Siberia, in a region where there were rarely more than forty days a year when the temperature went over fifty degrees, none of them in October… Snow was on the ground…

_Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in Miami? _he thought.

He slowly started to walk forward again. Then he stopped again, suddenly.

The underbrush around him was burnt and scorched, as were most of the trees. Small fires were still burning. Several acres of woodland in front of and around him had been burned by still smoldering flames.

_What in… _he thought. Of all the things he had heard of the yikaria doing, wildlife arson was never one of them. Fire was part of elementalist magic, but the yikaria were skilled enough not to be careless with it.

He paused and stared for a good minute. Looking at the blasted landscape around him, he drew his coat tighter around himself with a shiver that wasn't just from the cold anymore. He had read stories about the Shadowchasers before him, and one of his favorites had always been Voltaire Amore.

Namely, he was suddenly reminded of a report where, in a similarly burnt out forest deep in Europe, Voltaire had run afoul of a particularly nasty ghoul by the name of Adleg. A real piece of work even by the standards of most undead, Adleg had been burnt alive after a failed robbery, and thus had returned with a taste for arson and murder.

Seeing such devastation Hank had to wonder, if a tiny burnt out section of a forest had created such an unpleasant creature, what could something on this scale have possibly created that might still be lurking around?

Suddenly, the peculiar change in weather turned from warm to _very _hot. He turned around to see a ball of fire crashing towards the ground, towards _him._

Fortunately, it was moving slowly for some reason, not like it was falling at all. Still, he didn't take time to question that. He dove aside, and the ball of flame hit, setting fire to some brush and turning the snow to hot steam.

_Okay, NOW things are getting interesting… _he thought, as he looked up, and saw a man-shaped figure walk towards him.

The strange man was clearly not a yikaria, and he was… bizarre. A muscular man with bronze feathers in place of hair, on his elbows, shoulders, and on his back. He wasn't exactly dressed for the location, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, but waves of heat seemed to radiate from his body. He was bald, and had burning red eyes. He lifted his arms, and flames danced over his skin.

"Oh, thank goodness, it's just a phoelarch…" gasped Hank. Then he caught himself. "What am I saying?"

_That _was likely _worse. _Phoelarch were Shadowkind, but not naturally occurring ones. They had once been human, but unlike standard ways to transform yourself into a powerful being, no-one ever _wanted _to be one or became one intentionally. This was the occasional result of surviving a deadly magical disease called fire taint.

While any injury involving fire is dangerous, if such an injury occurs in a place where dark or unholy magic is strong, the victim risks contracting fire taint. Symptoms of fire taint include (along with the injuries caused by the burns) pain from the burns more intense than normal, leading to mental anguish, muscle weakness, possibly brain damage, and the inability to heal the burns with conventional medicine. If a cure for the disease is not applied, insanity or death might result.

Still, some victims are strong enough to overcome the disease on their own without treatment through a strong constitution or sheer force of will, and if they manage to do so, a transformation from human to phoelarch occurs, giving the victim great power over the element of fire.

Still, this and other transformations gained via surviving magical diseases was one of the riskiest ways to gain magical power. Aside from the usual risks of refusing treatment for a disease, there was always the chance that the madness caused might not be reversed by the transformation…

The phoelarch stretched, as if to yawn… Then flames spouted from his arms to both sides, igniting two trees that the first fire had at first missed.

"HEY!" shouted Hank.

He threw his pack aside, and tried to tackle the creature… Which was a _bad _idea. A wave of intense heat sent him tumbling backwards into what was now wet mud caused by the melted snow.

The phoelarch cackled.

"_The Son of Man will send his angels," _he cackled,_ "and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."_

"What in the world are you talking about?" asked Hank. "Not that I don't welcome some relief from the cold, but you're going to burn the whole forest down, you idiot!"

"Humans are heading that way already," said the creature. "He said to Noah after the Great Flood that the end would come not with Water, but with Fire, and when that time came, the world would burn.

"_And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of His name."_

"Anyone ever tell you you're a lunatic?" asked Hank. "Look, my past attempts to reason with people making crazy sermons never seem to work…"

He threw his coat aside, and then pulled his sword from the sheath.

"…so I'm not gonna bother!"

He lifted the weapon, but before he could take a swing, there was another surge of flame, and the metal bent like soft lead.

_Okay, so maybe that wasn't such a good idea… _thought Hank.

"You're crazy…" he said to the phoelarch.

"Am I?" asked the creature.

He gestured, and a ring of flames encircled both him and Hank, about twenty yards in diameter.

Then he lifted his left arm, and a Duel Disk in the shape of a flame appeared on it.

"You're young, and it's not too late," he said. "I'll give you advice… Take old Ezekiel's words to memory and hear them well…"

_Ezekiel? _thought Hank. _I've heard of nutcases who thought they were Jesus or Moses, but…_

"Twenty-five years ago, I was just the young son of a sheep farmer, and I was put in charge of disposing carcasses that had succumbed to an extreme epidemic of some cattle-borne illness. I was throwing them into bonfires I had lit.

"When I picked one up… It was infected by a swarm of rot grubs, which leapt on me…"

Now even Hank was afraid. Rot grubs were the stuff of nightmares, horrid parasites from beyond Shadow. They were the size of slugs and lived in carrion and filth, but if they came in contact with a warm-blooded living creature, they'd burrow their way into him until they reached his heart. The victim would usually die in two minutes tops, but he'd spend those two minutes screaming in horrible agony the whole time.

"I panicked, and ran, not watching where I was going," continued Ezekiel, "and I crashed headlong into one of the bonfires. My father heard my screams, and pulled me out in time. I was burned over most of my skin… But my life had been saved, as the fire had killed the grubs."

_So that explains it… _thought Hank. _Some dark curse must have killed the sheep and attracted the grubs, and the lingering magic combined with the accident caused fire taint._

"I lay sick in bed for weeks, unconscious most of the time," continued Ezekiel, "and had horrible dreams. I dreamt of fiery meteors falling from the sky, of Moscow and St. Petersburg erupting in flames, and then finally, the largest one of all… One that I knew was yet to come…

"I woke up… I was stronger than before, STRONG!"

He lifted up his hands, and flames spouted upward.

_Crazier too…_ thought Hank.

"That fire did more than save my life then…" continued Ezekiel. "I was purified on a white-hot fire. I know what my dreams meant. The end is coming, and only a few will be saved…"

His Disk activated.

"You want to duel me?" asked Hank.

"Like I said, you're young," he continued. "The white hot fire can purify those who truly desire it. Accept it and be saved… Or reject it and you can join the fate of all sinners when the time comes…

"_They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power."_

Hank rolled his eyes. This guy was clearly insane. Still, with the subject of Voltaire Amore was still fresh in his mind, he switched his own Disk into position.

_He's much stronger than I am, _he thought, _and as Voltaire was known to say, three of the most useful rules you learn in the Shadowchasers are, mind your manners, keep an open mind, and if someone offers you a fighting chance when you should otherwise be past tense, you damn well take it!_

He flipped his Duel Gaze over his left eye, and the system activated.

"_**Duel interface set, augmented reality vision link established."**_

**(Hank: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Ezekiel: 8,000)**

Ezekiel drew a card, and his expression suddenly turned serious.

"For my first move…" he said, "I'll summon Vermillion Sparrow Summoner…"

As he played the card, a bird made of fire soared down from the sky, then slowly touched down, folding its wings. It quickly turned into a young woman with purple hair and eyes. She wore a black "catsuit" with a cloak and gold trim. (1,600 ATK)

He flicked his hand, and a reversed card appeared behind her.

"That's all…"

_Vermillion Sparrow Summoner? _thought Hank, looking at the female Spellcaster's face. _I'm guessing she does more than summon Vermillion Sparrow._

He looked at his first draw. It was a new one… He hadn't gotten a chance to test this one yet, but…

_No time like the present, _he thought, fitting it on his Disk. The ground shook, and a mass of bones lifted up from out of the ground, piecing themselves together into a large T-Rex skeleton, with sharp spurs jutting from every joint and blue flames in its eyes. (1,700 ATK)

"Then an old standard," he said, "my Gilasaurus."

The well-known, smallish raptor leapt beside the large Zombie and hissed. The Spellcaster gave a mean look at both the monsters. (1,400 ATK)

"Skelesaurus, attack with Enervation Blast!"

He called it a 'blast', but it was more like a cloud of dust, and what happened even made Hank flinch a little. Vermillion Sparrow Summoner screamed in agony as her clothing, then _flesh _turned to dust, and she collapsed into a pile of bones.

"Uh… Uhm…" said Hank. "I…"

Skelesaurus growled a little.

_Maybe I should have thought this through some more, _he thought.

"Bah…" said Ezekiel. "Such is the fate of the weak… But at least she has some use. Her death means I get to summon a Warrior from my deck with 1,500 Attack Points or less, so I choose Rune Lord."

There was a small surge of fire, and the Warrior that appeared looked like a dwarf with blackened armor, fiery red hair and a beard, and flames shrouding his hands. (1,300 ATK)

"Yeah? Let's see how tough _he _is…" said Hank. "Gilasaurus, Savage Claw!"

The small dinosaur moved at a blur, and a look of shock appeared on the dwarf's face. As Gilasaurus stopped, a long, diagonal scar appeared on the Rune Lord's armor… then he shattered.

"So much for him…" said Hank.

"He's gone, but not for long," said Ezekiel. "For when sent from the field or my hand to the Graveyard, Rune Lord is eradicated completely…"

"Uh, as in banished?" asked Hank.

"Call it what you will," continued Ezekiel, "but I will be able to use him again if at least two superior beings of Fire come to my aid before my next turn ends… But only from the same place whence Rune Lord himself came, so long as I haven't already done so… Which I assure you, will not be difficult."

_Okay, this guy is talking weird, but I think I get it, _thought Hank. _He'll be able to recover that Rune Lord for whatever reason he plans if he summons at least _two _high Level Fire monsters, on his turn… But only if he doesn't summon anything from the Extra Deck or doesn't plan to on his next turn…_

He took three more of his cards and set them.

_Better be prepared, _he thought, as they phased into existence behind his monsters.

"Your move…"

"Oh, I'll draw…" said Ezekiel, drawing. "And the next card I use… Is Convulsion of Nature!"

As he played the Continuous Spell the ground split and cracked, geysers of magma flowed from below, and a powerful storm started to rage overhead. Hail started to fall from the heavens, turning into foul smoke upon hitting the ground.

"A mere foreshadowing of what is to come…" said Ezekiel. "Now, we both take our decks, and turn them upside down with the bottoms facing upwards."

Hank reluctantly did so, having a feeling what this guy was up to.

"Next, I use my Continuous Trap Card," continued Ezekiel, as the card lifted. "With Hazy Glory, I can Normal Summon a monster with the words 'Hazy Flame' in its name for one less sacrifice. And because _all _of them except one are Level 6, that means I don't need _any _sacrifices for _any _of them."

Hank started to sweat a little. He heard of Hazy Flames… He wasn't all-too sure what that odd one was, but he had heard rumors of an _incredibly _powerful and nigh-unstoppable beast…

"I summon Hazy Flame Sphynx!" shouted Ezekiel.

There was a shower of embers, and a female leonine monster with a woman's head and long, flowing, fiery hair prowled menacingly onto the field. She looked at Hank, licked her lips, and smirked. (1,900 ATK)

"Like all sphinxes, this one has a riddle, but fear not, I have to guess it. I have to guess whether the top card of my deck is a Monster, Spell, or Trap, and if I'm correct, I get to Special Summon a Fire Attribute monster from my Graveyard or hand.

"I guess monster…"

He flipped the top card from his deck, and turned it towards Hank.

"What a surprise, it is," replied Hank.

Then a crafty and ironic thought came to him.

"You needed Convulsion of Nature to be sure? What sort of prophet are you?"

"Careful," replied Ezekiel. "The Pharaoh doubted that Moses was a prophet until it was too late. Now, I'll get rid of this…"

He discarded the card he had picked up.

"…and because I was right, I can Special Summon Hazy Flame Cerbereus."

He took another card from his hand, and there was a loud howl that grew into three. A mastiff with three heads, fiery orange fur, and bright red snakes as manes appeared from the lava behind him. (2,000 ATK)

"Ugh…" said Hank.

"Time for the true test…" said Ezekiel.

Then Sphynx smiled sweetly at Gilasaurus… And flaming beams of energy shot from her eyes, turning it to a pile of ash. Then three large fireballs shot from Cerbereus' mouth and slammed into Skelesaurus. A pile of scorched and burned bones fell on the ground with a clatter.

**(H: 7,200) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 8,000)**

"My turn is over now, and because I met the conditions, Rune Lord returns to my hand…"

He held out his palm, and a small flame appeared in it, turning into the card.

"Time to prove yourself… It will be interesting to see if He will judge you any more worthy of living on His domain than the ancient creatures you use in your deck."

"You know fellah…" said Hank. "I've seen a lot of guys like you… Most of them become conservative television evangelists… Or head small churches who ask for donations and buy time on public radio…"

He drew a card.

"Sure, they act like lunatics, but they always have a large audience. So why do it out here in the middle of nowhere? By the way, I'm activating this…"

One of his three Trap Cards lifted up, revealing the Birthright card.

"Skelesaurus is a Gemini Monster, meaning I can summon it to the field using this card."

The lava underneath him churned, and the bone dino crawled out of the molten rock again. (1,700 ATK)

"Now, by what you said, I take it you meant that the dinosaurs were… judged unworthy of ruling the Earth, and were, uhm, 'smote' by the higher powers. Maybe by, say, a meteor striking the Earth?

"Well, that's not the only theory, just the most popular one. They could have frozen to death in an ice age or gone extinct due to a blight that made them sterile.

"You see, 'Ezekiel', that's one of the most frustrating things about paleontology, you only have fossils to work with, and bones only let you make theories about extinct creatures, educated guesses about what they were like… And hypothetical theories about what they might have _become_."

"Might have become?" asked Ezekiel. "What are you blathering about?"

"Let's start off with the educated guesses," said Hank. "Skelesaurus here is nothing but a fossil, a complete fossil, maybe, but still a fossil, so we'd only be able to guess what the dinosaur might have looked like when alive, with its flesh and organs. But… By Gemini Summoning it… We can entertain one possibility…"

A flash started at the skeleton's tail, and started to cover the whole monster, covering it with muscle, tendons, and finally skin. As Ezekiel watched, the skeleton was given life, becoming a live dinosaur with dull orange skin and tiger-like stripes, its formerly glowing eyes now savage and reptilian.

"By doing so, Skelesaurus' Type and Attribute changes to Dinosaur and Earth, respectively," said Hank, "which means I can use this other Trap…"

Another set card lifted up, one called Survival of the Fittest. The dino let out a low roar, saliva dripping from its teeth. (2,700 ATK)

"It not only boosts his Attack Score by 1,000 points, it lets him attack another monster after destroying one. Which is a good thing, because I figure, after being dead for eons and brought back to life, he's awfully hungry."

"You impudent…" said Ezekiel.

"Go, chow down!" shouted Hank, pointing to Sphynx.

Then Ezekiel looked a lot less confident. The Dinosaur charged the Hazy Flame, its jaws closing on her with a loud _chomp. _Then it quickly shifted to get a better grip on the Beast-Warrior, then swallowed it.

It turned to the now-frightened Cerbereus, but quickly pounced on that one too, making just as short work.

**(H: 7,200) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 6,500)**

"Infidel…" growled Ezekiel. "By destroying my Cerbereus, you've triggered its effect, and I get to take _any _card with the word 'Hazy' in it from my deck."

Again, a small fire appeared in his hand, and turned into a card.

"Yeah, yeah, heard it all before," said Hank. "My Gemini Summoned Skelesaurus has an effect you'll like even _less."_

The lava started to churn again, and both Hazy Flame Sphynx and Hazy Flame Cerbereus crawled out, but their flesh was decayed with rib bones sticking through, and their eyes… Their eyes seemed colder now… Worst of all, they were on Hank's side of the field. (1,900 DEF), (200 DEF)

"What have you done?" screamed Ezekiel.

"Brought them back as Zombies," said Hank, "but don't fret, I have plans for them…"

His third Trap lifted up.

"I'll use the Trap Card, Hyper Metabolize. I can make an extra Normal Summon of a high-Level Dinosaur… _But, _the monsters I sacrifice _also _have to be high-Level.

Then a _huge _Dinosaur crawled out, a titan standing twenty feet tall with an armored, spiked carapace.

Ultimate Tyranno let out a roar that shook the forest. (3,000 ATK)

"It seems like an uneven trade-off, but it also makes him invulnerable on your next turn. And by the way, chuckles, that starts now."

"How dare you," said Ezekiel, as he drew. "I'm not intimidated by such things…

_"His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."_

"Should I throw up now or later?" asked Hank.

"I use the effect of Hazy Glory to summon, with no sacrifice, my Hazy Flame Peryton!" shouted the phoelarch.

The monster that appeared this time, looked like it was sculpted out of pure fire, resembling a beautiful stag with large wings. (1,600 ATK)

"Then, by discarding a Fire monster from my hand, and sacrificing Peryton, I can summon two additional Hazy Flames from my deck…"

He discarded Rune Lord again, and the Pyro disappeared in a cloud of smoke and ash. In its place, another Sphynx rose, (1,900 ATK) then a fiery, gaunt, hose-like creature with large, fiery wings. (2,100 ATK)

"Next, I'll use the effect of this Sphynx too… I'll declare monster…"

He lifted the card up, and turned it forward.

"Right again…" sighed Hank. "What a surprise…"

Ezekiel discarded it, and Cerbereus rose out of the lava again. (2,000 ATK)

_He must have enough monsters to summon that big one… _he thought. _But…_

"I use the Pot of Dichotomy Spell Card!" shouted Ezekiel, holding a card up. "By sending three monsters of different Types from my Graveyard to my deck and reshuffling, I can draw twice… So I'll send my first Sphynx, my Hyppogrif, and my Mantikor…"

Three cards appeared behind him in enlarged form. The Sphynx was easy enough to recognize, another was a match for the winged horse he had just summoned, and the third was some devilish lion-like creature. His deck reshuffled, and he made two draws.

"I can't attack this turn…" he said, "so I'll set these, and end…"

Two fires appeared in front of him, spreading and forming into two set cards. Then a fire formed in his hand once more.

"…which means that once again, I get Rune Lord back…"

Hank drew, then looked at those three monsters, then at his own… suspiciously.

_That seems like a pretty obvious set-up… _he thought. _I'd be pretty dumb to attack…_

_Unfortunately, since I have Ultimate Tyranno, I don't exactly have a choice here…_

"Ultimate Tyranno, destroy his Sphynx with Primal Fury!" he shouted.

The giant Dinosaur let out an enormous bellow… Then one of Ezekiel's set cards lifted up and around.

"I use the Covering Fire Trap Card!" exclaimed Ezekiel. "Now I can add my Hyppogrif's might to my Sphynx's!"

The Sphynx's eyes glowed again, her Attack Score shooting up to 4,000. A white-hot blazing ray of even more power shot from her eyes, turning Ultimate Tyranno to hot ash.

Hank paused for a minute. Then he looked at his other monster.

"I attack Hazy Flame Hyppogrif with my Skelesaurus!" he shouted, as his other Dinosaur tromped towards the Winged Beast."

"You foolish simpleton," chuckled Ezekiel, as his other set card lifted up. "I use the Spell Card, Forbidden Tome!

"By using this card when you declare an attack, the effects of _all _other cards are negated until the end of the battle, and all monsters are reduced to their original Scores."

The Dinosaur howled as the flesh melted off its bones, returning it to a skeletal state, and its Score returned to 1,700. A flaming feathers shot from Hyppogrif like darts, reducing it to charred bones again.

**(H: 5,800) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 6,500)**

"Thank you…" said Hank. "Because now that I have no monsters on my field and you have at least two, I can summon my Steel Shelled Ankylosaur."

He played a card, and a new Dinosaur climbed out of the magma, one with a rather appropriate name. It was a huge _ankylosaurus, _about fifteen feet long and almost as wide as it was tall, covered with metal spiked armor all over its hulking body. (2,000 ATK)

"Unfortunately," he said, fitting his last card into his Spell Zone, "I have to summon it in Attack Mode. Since I've already attacked, I'll just set this and end…"

**Interlude**

About ten miles outside of Florence was a manor house that, according to the deed, was owned by a man named Alphonse Narcasso. Most knew him as a retired judge for the city.

Still, no-one ever saw Judge Narcasso anymore. Whenever anyone went to the house, they were told he was "away on personal matters". Not that anyone usually had reason to visit him; the utility bills were always paid on time, he had no relatives, and like most wealthy people in the city did, others did errands for him. He was regarded as a reclusive and possibly lonely old man.

Now, a lot of people _did _know that Narcasso hadn't been the most honest of judges, and that he had accepted bribes in his time. But few knew to what extent. He had graduated law school by buying the answers to his final exam, and was appointed a judge by blackmailing a politician using organized crime influences. And his willingness to accept bribes was _far _worse than anyone knew about.

Very few knew that even if you bribed him, there was no guarantee he'd rule in your favor. Sometimes, when he felt a defendant who bribed him deserved it – or simply annoyed him – he'd rule against him anyway, after making sure the sentence he handed down would discourage retribution or make such impossible.

The last time he had done that, he had miscalculated.

Which is why _very _few people – fifteen, exactly – knew that Judge Alphonse Narcasso was dead, the body disposed of using powerful magic. The house was now used as a base of operations for the highest ranking members of Cattivo Fanciullo's gang – who Narcasso had double crossed, naturally – and it was a simple trick to use magic to look like him if he _had _to appear in public.

In an office that had been converted from a den, Fanciullo leaned on his head and groaned, the bad headache only getting worse. He picked up the bottle of Tylenol in front of him, and then checked his watch. Nope. It hadn't been four hours since he last took it…

_Oh, what the hell… _he thought, opening the bottle.

Fanciullo often lived by the phrase, "there are two types of people in the world of organized crime, smart people and dead people". Narcasso had obviously _not _been the smart type. But there were exceptions to this rule. It was possible for a _genius _in this business to wind up dead if his best-laid plans went wrong. The story of Maxwell "Silver Hammer" Pepard was such a story. (And yes, he _did _get his nickname from the song. Long story.)

Maxwell was the chief lieutenant of Abe Leonelli. Now, nobody could even remember a time when the Leonelli Family and the Contague Family didn't rule the underworld of Rome, or a time when the two families didn't _hate _each other. No-one knew just how the decades-old violent feud between the two crime families started, but many Italian lawmakers who studied American history compared them to the Hatfields and the McCoys (and many pointed out that they were _worse _than the Hatfields and the McCoys, who had eventually been willing to make peace.)

Eventually, however, a violent shootout between the two gangs caused the deaths of three law-enforcement agents in the crossfire – one of them a policewoman – and _both _gangs were in trouble. Many cops who they were paying off told their contacts they would refuse to support them anymore (well, _some _of them "told" them that, most actually ambushed and arrested the guys sent to pay them off) while the head of the DIA (the _Direzione Investigativa Antimafia, _or Anti-Mafia Investigation Department) in Rome was fired and his replacement announced a new zero tolerance policy promising the maximum sentence the law allowed for anyone convicted of organized crime activities; this included _any _police officer caught accepting bribes.

Not only were Leonelli and his counterpart Marcel Contague in jeopardy because of these new reforms, so were all the other gangs in Italy; practically overnight, lesser gang members went from admiring members of the two gangs as role models to hating their guts. It was clear that their feud had gone a little out of control, even more so when someone asked Contague just how the hell it had started way back when his great-grandfather was in charge, and he had no idea.

So the two mob bosses met, and decided to finally call a truce. They would divide their territory and activities between them – each handling the areas they were better at – and in return would watch each other's backs for mutual protection.

Unfortunately, it was clear that Leonelli was getting the better deal in the whole bargain. Before they finally formally agreed to it, Contague grumbled, and said, "I suppose I'm lucky I don't have to turn over my first-born daughter, Abe…"

Quite a few members of Leonelli's gang laughed at that, even though they knew Contague would never have actually agreed to it. (Molly Contague was _very _beautiful but her dad was incredibly overprotective.) Leonelli simply chuckled a little and replied, "Not that I wouldn't welcome the offer, Marcel, but tell you what… Just have your daughter send over that lasagna of hers I've heard so much about sometime, and I'll settle for that."

Yes, mobsters do love to eat. Look at them sometime when they appear on the news.

Anyway, Leonelli had been joking, but he was a little surprised when he had his Christmas Eve party the next month and one of Contague's men came over, delivering a large pan of the lasagna along with a Christmas card from Contague's daughter wishing him happy holidays. It was a gesture of goodwill that seemed genuine.

Well, the truce actually turned out in favor for both gangs over the next year. Not only did they manage to stay clear of the police for the most part, despite the new reforms, they were able to profit more than ever. For the first time in years, it was getting to the point that both mobsters didn't have to sleep with a rifle next to them, and they were actually starting to relax. Many were wondering why they didn't do this years ago.

Everyone seemed content… Except one man. Leonelli's second-in-command, Maxwell "Silver Hammer" Pepard.

Max was older than his boss, and tougher. He was a soldier once, and a _very _hawkish one who had fought in the War, and had been court martialed for torturing POWs. He started to think that Leonelli was getting soft and that making peace with Contague – or anyone – was the same as a surrender. He wasn't stupid, and was a good planner as far as gangland strategy was concerned, but maybe that was his problem. It made him think that peace made you weak. (And he had a point; Leonelli had gained weight over the past year, and was out of shape.)

So he started to engineer a plot that would not only rekindle the fighting, but make it worse. When November came around and Contague promised Leonelli that Molly would have someone send over the lasagna again, hinting they might make this an annual tradition, Pepard obtained a rare poison called vashita, which was a lethal as cyanide, but without the telltale smell of almond. If Max put it in the lasagna, whoever ate it would die within seconds.

Of course, he knew that he couldn't assassinate Leonelli this way, because the mobster had a food-taster. But that's exactly what he was counting on. If the food-taster was killed this way, it would clearly look like an attempt on Leonelli's life orchestrated by Contague, and it would be more than enough for Pepard to convince his boss that their enemy had violated the deal.

Well, Pepard's plan seemed to be perfect. He went over every possibility he could think of a hundred times. No-one saw him slip the poison into the pan of lasagna when the mobster told the cook to reheat it; he and the cook were the only ones in the kitchen.

But then Pepard's plan came crashing down. It seemed that Leonelli's food taster was sick with a 104 degree fever and hadn't been able to make the party. So the guy who Contague had sent to deliver the lasagna volunteered to do the job.

Pepard got _part _of what he wanted. When the man dropped dead, he was furious, and knew someone had tried to kill him… but he quickly smelled a rat, and didn't blame Contague right away. Would his old rival send one of his own men with poisoned food and not warn him not to eat it? Contague wasn't _that _stupid.

The mobster quickly told his men to seal off the exits to the place, and had everyone searched. In the end, the true culprit was revealed. As you might expect, Leonelli's next order of business was finding a replacement for Pepard.

The moral of the story is, no matter how well-prepared you are, no matter how many contingencies you plan for, you can never plan for them all. Murphy's Law, in a nutshell.

Fanciullo turned his chair to a small refrigerator by the side, then opened it. Inside was gin, vermouth, and chilled martini glasses. As he took them out, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said.

The door opened, and a tall, thin, gaunt, almost sickly-looking man with a pointed nose with spectacles perched on them walked in. He was holding the book that Fanciullo had gotten from the strange girl.

"Well?" asked the don.

"Well, it's clear it has a magical seal on it, sir," said the tall man.

"You have a degree in linguistics, Tranello," said Fanciullo, "can't you do better?"

He started vigorously shaking the mixing glass.

"Well, the sigils on the cover are obviously in an archaic form of the Ignan alphabet," replied Tranello. "An alphabet that was developed on the Elemental Plane of Fire, and used in many languages, including Draconic. Problem is, the language is clearly not any known language that uses Ignan. It's something very different."

Fanciullo stopped shaking it.

"Say what?" he asked.

"Well, if you ever tried using Japanese kanji symbols to _literally _spell something out in a Western language, you'd know what I meant," replied the henchman. "I think I know some people who… well, might know some people who could figure it out, but stuff like this isn't exactly downloadable."

"Do the best you can…" muttered Fanciullo.

As his accountant left, he poured the martini into a glass.

_One of those weeks my ass, _he thought.

He took a sip from it as he held his head.

_This is gonna be a bad month…_

**End of Interlude**

"Now comes the time reckoning!" laughed Ezekiel, as he drew.

He paused, and looked at the card, then played it.

"I activate The Big Cattle Drive!" he exclaimed. "Because the monsters I now have consist of a Beast, a Winged Beast, and a Beast-Warrior, I can draw _three _times!"

He quickly drew thrice.

"However, I can't use the effects of any other card this turn, but the time has come…"

He lifted his arms, and flames spouted from them. Hank ducked, and then looked… The fire was coming perilously close to the trees.

"Stop it, you maniac!" he shouted. "Do you want to burn this whole forest down?"

"I made my sacrifice, and now it's time to see if you're willing to…" replied Ezekiel.

"_If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands."_

"It seems reasoning with him is pointless…" muttered Hank.

"Attack, my Hyppogrif!" shouted Ezekiel, as the Winged Beast's fiery feathers darted towards Steel Shelled Ankylosaur. "Baptize him and his monster in the white hot flames of renewal!"

"I hate to interrupt a good insane rant," said Hank, "but the armor this guy has isn't just for show. By reducing his Attack and Defense Score by 500, he can survive."

The burning feathers stabbed into the armored dino, embedding themselves in its hide, but while his Attack Score fell to 1,500, he withstood the assault.

Ezekiel frowned. Cerbereus breathed its triple fireballs, but while they scorched Ankylosaur's shell a little, they failed to crack it. (1,000 ATK)

Angry now, Ezekiel turned to Sphynx and pointed, and her beams struck the Dinosaur in the frontal section. This time, the armor _did _crack, and Ankylosaur's left hind leg gave out, but he still persevered. (500 ATK)

**(H: 4,300) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 6,500)**

"Seems these Dinosaurs were a little tougher than you assumed," replied Hank. "But then, those guys may be powerful, but not as powerful as a continent-shaping cataclysm."

"SHUT UP!" shouted Ezekiel. "I'll set these and end my turn!"

Again, two large flames appeared in front of him, turning into two set cards.

"Hard to stay in character now?" asked Hank. "Well before you do, I'll activate _this!"_

His Trap Card lifted.

"Unstoppable Rage," he said. "Because you couldn't destroy my monster, even though you attacked it at least twice, I get to draw twice. _However, _of the two cards I draw, I have to discard one of them…"

He slowly drew twice. The two cards were Living Fossil and Fossil Tusker. He glanced at the one other card he had, and then discarded Fossil Tusker.

"It's my move now…" he said, making a third draw.

"This monster is Level 8, but I can sacrifice it with only once sacrifice if said sacrifice is a Dinosaur…"

Steel Shelled Ankylosaur disappeared, and there was a crackle in the air and a distinctive smell of ozone.

"You say dinosaurs died out because they were 'not worthy'?" he asked. "Well, let's see what might have happened if the Powers that Be had judged differently… I summon Super Ancient Dinobeast!"

The monster that appeared was _huge, _almost as big as Ultimate Tyranno, and didn't seem to resemble any known species of dinosaur. It was bipedal, but hunched over, with a ribbed, scaly, armored hide, a dorsal horn, and small, vestigial wings on its back. (2,700 ATK)

"Eh…" said Ezekiel.

"Next, I use Living Fossil to revive Ultimate Tyranno from the Graveyard," said Hank, as he fit the card into his Disk.

The huge dino crawled from the lava again, lacking much of the show and flourish from last time. (2,000 ATK)

"Due to Ancient Dinobeast's effect, I get to draw once whenever a Dinosaur is summoned from the Graveyard," said Hank, making a draw. "As for Tyranno himself, sure he loses 1,000 Attack Points and his effect…"

Tyranno eyed Hazy Flame Sphynx hungrily… Then it charged at her, causing the ground to tremble again.

"…but that doesn't make _her_ higher than him on the food chain…"

For the _second time, _Sphynx was seized in one mighty chomp. Ezekiel looked at Hank angrily.

"I despise you…" he said.

Then a blast of radioactive energy from Super Ancient Dinobeast hit Hyppogrif, vaporizing it.

**(H: 4,300) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 5,800)**

"And the feeling is mutual, okay?" replied Hank. "Be glad my old friend Red Feather isn't here… I've never _actually _seen her kill someone who's been so careless with fire, but there are rumors…"

He took his last card, the one he had just drawn with Dinobeast's effect, and played it.

"I'm using my Advanced Draw Spell Card," he said. "I'll sacrifice Ultimate Tyranno to draw twice…"

The huge Dinosaur disappeared, and he made two draws, again.

"I'll set this card, and it's your move, fellah…" he said, playing one of them.

Ezekiel started muttering something which Hank couldn't understand. (He recognized the language – it was Latin – but he had never actually studied that.) He drew, then one of his Trap Cards lifted up.

"I'm using Beast Burial Ritual," he said. "By destroying one of my Beasts, I get to draw twice…"

Cerbereus vanished in a plume of dark smoke as he made two draws.

"Oh no…" said Hank. "If he destroys _that _one…"

"Exactly…" said Ezekiel, "I get to take another Hazy Flame from my deck."

"You keep this up, you're not going to have many _left _in your deck!" replied Hank.

Ezekiel held out his hand as the flaming card appeared in it again.

"Silence!" he replied. "More than enough remain, and lucky for you, I can't use those two cards I drew until next turn, so I'll set one monster, and then banish my Vermillion Sparrow Summoner to summon Inferno in Defense Mode."

First a set monster appeared, then a blazing pyre with burning eyes appeared next to it. (1,900 DEF)

"Your move…" he said.

"Okay, let's see here…" said Hank, as he drew..

_Speak of the devil, _he thought.

"Time for something different…" he said. "I summon Aarakocra."

It was an odd monster, or that it was certain. She – there was no doubt, given the facial features and long, pink, gossamer robes – had wings, feathers, and a long, multicolored plume down her back, her face being both bird-like and humanlike, soft and gentle. (1,400 ATK)

"Who is she?" shouted Ezekiel.

"Remember what I've been saying?" replied Hank. "My hypothetical situations regarding dinosaurs? Some people have studied what might have happened if they hadn't gone extinct, and this is often combined with the theory that at least some of them _didn't _go extinct, and evolved into birds.

"The _Archaeopteryx __is an ancient bird that could well have been the 'missing link', quote-unquote, between dinosaurs and birds, so this monster is…"_

_"What are you, a duelist or a biology professor?" shouted Ezekiel. _

_"Losing your patience, huh?" said Hank, as his Trap Card opened. "Well, I lost patience with your dumb sermon about fifteen minutes ago. The correct science here is paleontology, by the way. I activate Fossil Excavation."_

_He discarded his other card, Cost Down, and once again, Ultimate Tyranno crawled out of the ground. (3,000 ATK)_

_"Fortunately for you, he can't use his effect this time either, __however, __I get to draw due to Dinobeast again…"_

_He looked at the top card on his deck – still in plain sight due to Convulsion of Nature – and took it. _

_"Now for your monsters…"_

_Ultimate Tyranno simply lifted its foot, and crushed Inferno with one solid smash. Then Super-Ancient Dinobeast breathed again towards the set card; Rune Lord appeared again, and was atomized. _

_Then _Aarakocra spread her wings and flew upward in graceful flight, then swooped down, delivering a kick to the phoelarch's chest with both feet, knocking him backwards.

**(H: 4,300) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 4,400)**

"With that, it seems the score is nearly tied," said Hank. "So now I'm going to relate another hypothetical theory regarding what may have been possible should dinosaurs not have gone extinct.

"As we all know, cartoons and the like that show dinosaurs existing alongside primitive humans is fantasy, as humans didn't come along until millions of years later. But… What might have happened had dinosaurs survived, and humans had been able to actually domesticate them?"

Ezekiel chuckled a little.

"Maybe we'd actually have drive-in restaurants that served bronto burgers and pterodactyl wings?" he said with a grin.

"An old fan of _The Flintstones, _are we?" asked Hank. "Maybe… But here's a more practical use…

"Using my Level 8 Ultimate Tyranno and Super Ancient Dinobeast… I build the Overlay Network!"

The black hole appeared over the flaming arena, and sucked the two Dinosaurs into it… Then the lava flows started to calm, the tremors quieting…

Then a Dinosaur even _bigger _than Ultimate Tyranno blasted out of the ground like a volcanic eruption. It had the general shape of a T-Rex, but unlike the well-known Tyrant Lizard, it had well-developed, muscular arms with claws. Plus, it had an armored hide that suggested the monster he summoned earlier, just much thicker.

The thing opened its jaws, its loud roar echoing over the landscape and causing the ground to tremble…

(3,400 ATK)

"What is _that?" _shouted Ezekiel.

"The Battle Titan," replied Hank. "The idea behind it is simple… If humans could have domesticated dinosaurs, they could have crossbred them the same way a horse and donkey is crossbred to breed mules. In this scenario, they would have crossbred a strong and fierce carnivore with a tough and armored herbivore to get the best of both worlds into one creature, creating a living tank, one which would could be used in armies the same way war elephants were used, but with much, much greater efficiency."

He closed his eyes and laughed softly.

"Just a theory, of course…Of what might have been…"

He slipped his last card into his Disk, and it appeared behind the Battle Titan in his Spell Zone.

"It's your move…"

_Little does that mutton-headed imbecile know, _thought Ezekiel, _I've got a beast that will put his to shame…_

He glanced at the top card of his deck – still clearly visible – and drew it.

**Interlude**

A large room in Fanciullo's manor resembled a fancy dining hall. For all practical purposes, it was indeed the dining hall, at least for Fanciullo's enforcers (Fanciullo himself ate alone) but they really had no schedule. The kitchen had a small staff, and could serve them at any time – within reason – and usually had the main meal prepared at this time.

Still, for Tranello Dominare, it was hard to eat when he was engrossed in a project, especially one that was driving him nuts like this one was. His plate of linguini was untouched as he typed at his laptop, the odd journal beside him.

He wasn't the only one there. Uomo and Amare were sitting at the other end, and another member of Fanciullo's gang was seated closer to Dominare, one who tended to stand out.

See, Vincenzo Belsito, Fanciullo's most powerful enforcer and general legbreaker, was a guy who tended to stand out in crowds, even among Mundanes who couldn't see his true form. Simply put, he was _huge. _A very rare type of lycanthrope called a devil swine (probably related to were-boars, but the animal stock based on the razorback rather than the common boar) he was seven feet tall, solid muscle (the suit he was wearing was custom-tailored) and his head resembling a fierce boar.

As Dominare typed, he muttered and sighed a little, feeling tired. Then Belsito stopped eating for a moment and belched a little.

"Vincenzo, do you mind?" asked Dominare. "You eat like a pig."

The large creature turned and looked at him.

"I _am _a pig, stupid!" he replied.

"Ugh, walked right into _that _one…" muttered Dominare. He leaned his head on his hand.

Belsito took a long drink from his mug, then wiped his chin.

"And what's wrong with pigs anyway…" he continued. "Pigs are pretty smart you know, like the ones in that book… What was it called, ah, oh right… _Animal Farm?"_

"You want to tell him, or should I?" asked Uomo to Amare.

"They get a bad rap, you know?" continued Belsito, who didn't seem to notice the remark.

He paused to take a bite, then went on.

"A guy hates women, they call him a 'male chauvinist pig. I mean _come on! _Name one guy like me who was like that!"

"Uh, Pierto Roama?" replied Dominare.

"Oh, he didn't hate them any more than he hated _everybody!" _snapped Belsito.

"He's got a point there," added Amare.

"You stay out of this, Amare!" snapped Belsito.

Then he turned back to Dominare, who was leaning on his hand even harder. Truthfully, Roama was the only devil swine other than Belsito he knew about. (They were kind of rare.)

"Someone tries to make a bad thing look good, they say he's 'putting lipstick on a pig'," continued the devil swine. "You try to build something good with bad stuff, they say you 'can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear'. What do people have against pigs anyway?"

"I dunno," sighed Dominare, "maybe because whenever you go to a farm where they raise them, it's hard to be downwind from them, and you always have to watch where you step?"

Belsito stopped. He put his fork down, looked at Dominare for a few seconds, and then stood up.

"Congratulations, Tranello, you just made history," said the devil swine, "you have made _me _lose my appetite!"

Then he stormed out the other side of the room, slamming the door so hard it made the light fixture quiver.

"I thought those guys were pals," said Amare.

"They are," replied Uomo. "You wanna know what Vince does to guys he _doesn't _like who makes him angry?"

"Uh…" said Amore.

"You don't wanna know what he does to guys he doesn't like who makes him angry," said Uomo, shaking his head.

**End of Interlude**

"As of right now, simpleton," said Ezekiel, "my Graveyard consists of Inferno, plus Sphynx, Hyppogrif, Peryton, and Cerbereus."

He looked at the card he had just drawn, and started to chant.

"_And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. _

"_And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed._

"_And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men._

"_And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live._

"_And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed._

"_And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:_

"_And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name._

"_Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six."_

Then he threw the card on his Disk, and an explosion erupted from the spot that was seen miles away.

Hank shielded himself from the surge of hellish, fiery heat as a titanic, slightly reptilian… _thing _towered over him, flames spurting from pores on its blackened armored hide. (2,800 ATK)

Still, despite the overwhelming heat, he was trying his best to keep a cool head, even though sweat was pouring down it…

"Pyrorex the Elemental Lord, huh?" he asked.

"I use its effect," replied Ezekiel. "By summoning this creature, I can destroy the product of your proposed unholy union and deal damage to both of us equal half your monster's Attack Score!"

Harsh, searing fire shot at Battle Titan.

"I survived the white hot fire once… Can you?"

"I sure can…" replied Hank, "and so will my monster. You see, Battle Titan's armor is not only tough, it's _reflective, _and by getting rid of and Overlay Unit, I can force your monster's effect to target another monster.

"So I'm going to make Pyrorex hit itself."

Battle Titan's scales turned a molten silver hue, and the flames reversed direction.

"DAH!" shouted Ezekiel. "I'll activate this card before that happens…"

His Trap lifted up.

"Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai!"

"Oh… shit…" said Hank.

Then Pyrorex itself turned into a ball of flame, plummeting past Battle Titan, slamming into Hank, and knocking him on his side.

**(H: 1,500) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 4,400)**

"Feeling it now, sinner?" mocked Ezekiel. "The pain that awaits those who are judged unworthy?"

Hank grunted, and looked at him, not getting up yet.

"All I feel now," he said, "is disgust. You're a fraud, fellah."

"How dare…" started Ezekiel.

"That passage of the Bible you quoted a minute ago, before summoning Pyrorex," interrupted Hank, "was Revelation 13:11 through 13:18, the description of the second Beast. Odd that a prophet trying to convince someone he perceived as a sinner to 'repent' would use a thing that represents Evil and the Enemy of God. If you had bothered to read Revelation 19, which came later, you'd see the part where Christ defeats both Beasts and casts them into Hell.

"Know what I think, Ezekiel? You barely even understand half the things you're quoting, you just used some search engine to find the scariest 'fire and brimstone' stuff out of the Bible and strung it all together in one incoherent mess in some lame attempt at psychological warfare."

The two duelists looked at each other hard for a minute or two… Ezekiel took two cards from his hand.

"I set two cards and end my turn…" he hissed.

_Now's my chance… _said Hank, as he drew.

"Battle Titan, attack him directly!" he shouted.

The sky darkened, and with another earthshaking roar, the Titan lunged at the mad prophet. A scream was all Hank needed to know the strike had hit home…

But then the scream turned into a sinister cackle as Ezekiel slowly started to get up. He was covered with bruises and had a black eye, but he seemed happy…

And he was standing between two Trap Cards.

**(H: 1,500) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 5,000)**

"Nutrient Z?" gasped Hank. "And… Volcano God's Retribution?"

"Indeed…" said Ezekiel. "I gained 4,000 Life Points before I took any because of my first Trap, but your lummox still managed to deal 3,400 points of damage, and while they say the Lord forgives all, I'm merely a prophet, so _I don't have to!"_

Then, the ground cracked open, and Sphynx (1,900 ATK), Cerbereus (2,000 ATK), and Hyppogrif (2,100 ATK).

"_Three _of them?" shouted Hank. "Come on…"

"Of course, they lose their effects," replied Ezekiel, "and should your destroy them now, well, the damage I take will be far more severe."

"I have to end my turn," replied Hank. "Don't forget, no attacks this turn."

"I wouldn't think of it," said Ezekiel with an evil smile as he drew.

"With Hazy Glory's effect, I summon Hazy Flame Hyudra!" he shouted.

This time, the monster looked like a nest of fiery, venomous serpents. (2,300 ATK)

"Like you said, I can't attack, so…"

He set one more card, and it appeared in his Spell Zone.

"And then it's your go…"

"Here goes…" muttered Hank.

He drew.

"Attack that Sphynx, Battle Titan!" he shouted.

"You took the bait!" laughed Ezekiel.

His Quickplay Spell lifted up.

"The Spell Card, Emergency Overlay! To use this I have to discard a card _and _banish all my Spells and Traps except this one…"

He discarded Rune Lord for what was likely the last time, and both Hazy Glory and Convulsion of Nature disappeared, taking with them the lava flow and blood-red skies.

"But now, I can build the Overlay Network, and the true messenger can descend!"

A fiery, flaming vortex opened, and the four Hazy Flames turned to balls of fire. Each was sucked through, one by one…

Then a monster flew out of it that was three times as big as any one of the others. Beautiful and ferocious at the same time, it was a flaming, demonic rooster with draconic features, its feathers made of fire and consisting of all ranges of the spectrum; the dull red of a campfire, through the bright orange of a bonfire, to the blinding blue of the hottest of suns. (2,500 ATK)

"It's only going to get worse for you and your beast, my friend," said Ezekiel. "Because I used Hyudra to summon it, Hazy Flame Basiltrice gains a _fifth _monster as an Overlay Unit from my Graveyard.

"When it has three or more Overlay Units, its Attack Points increase by 200 for each one it has…"

(3,500 ATK)

"But there's more… When it has _four _or more Overlay Units, it can't be targeted by your card effects, and with _five, _it can't be destroyed by card effects whether they target or not!"

_Well, looks like I've finally seen this special Hazy Flame I've heard about, _though Hank. _Lucky me…_

"Aarakocra, move to Defense Mode," he said.

The bird-woman knelt, covering herself with her wings. (1,200 DEF)

"Your move…" he said slowly.

Ezekiel started to giggle uncontrollably as he drew.

"Perfect!" he laughed. "I just drew the Equip Spell Xyz Unit!"

As he used it, Hazy Flame Basiltrice burned even brighter. (4,700 ATK)

"This grants it Attack Points equal to its Rank times 200, and should the need arise, I can use the Equip Spell itself as an extra Overlay Unit.

"Now cleanse this place of that abomination! Crimson Prominence!"

For a brief second, the whole world turned red. Hank felt heat… Incredible heat… He barely saw the attack that blew Battle Titan into a million pieces…

Barely. He _did _see it…

**(H: 200) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 5,000)**

When he could see clearly, Aarakocra was shivering in fright, and Hank couldn't blame her. She was next unless he thought of something…

"That's it…" said Ezekiel. "Tremble!

"_And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire."_

Hank's hand clenched into a fist.

"Bull… _shit!" _he shouted.

"What?" said Ezekiel. "I…"

"Shut up, you psychopath!" shouted Hank. "I've had enough of this… My move!"

He drew a card. Then he calmed down a little, and cleared his throat.

"Since you're so fond of Biblical verse, I'll quote one for you…

"_Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me._

He threw a card onto the Monster Zone of his Disk, and a second Gilasaurus appeared. (1,400 ATK)

"You fool…" chuckled Ezekiel. "_This _time, I can benefit from that monster's effect too… I summon Inferno in Defense Mode."

As he said so, the pyre appeared once again. (1,900 DEF)

"I was hoping you'd do that…" said Hank.

"Eh?" said Ezekiel.

"I use the Spell Card Fossil Fusion!" he shouted.

The ground cracked, both on his side of the field and Ezekiel's, and Fossil Tusker rose of the ground on his side, while Pyrorex emerged from his foe's.

"By fusing together a Rock-Type monster from my Graveyard and a Level 8 Dinosaur from yours," he said, as the two monsters faded away, "I can Fusion Summon my Paleozoic Fossil Dragon – Skullgeoth!"

The ground ripped open again, and a larger, meaner, stronger-looking dinosaur skeleton, a larger version of Skelesaurus, rose out. (3,500 ATK)

"Big deal!" said Ezekiel. "Strong as it may be, it's just another pile of bones."

"Remember my Birthright Trap Card?" asked Hank. "Did you honestly think I'd have that in my deck if I had only one monster to use it with? Aarakocra is a Gemini Monster too, and I'm Gemini Summoning her _now!"_

The female monster stood up, her gossamer robes shimmering.

"By doing so, she becomes a Tuner, and I get to choose one monster on the field, then change its Level to that of another monster on the field. So I choose to make Gilasaurus the same Level as Paleozoic Fossil Dragon – Skullgeoth, which means it's now Level 8."

"Don't tell me you're going to summon a Level 12 Synchro with just two monsters," replied Ezekiel.

"Oh, I'm not," replied Hank. "In fact, Gilasaurus isn't the monster that Aarakocra will be Tuning with."

His Trap Card tipped up, and turned.

"Using Release from Stone, I can summon Fossil Tusker to the field."

There was a brilliant orb, and a grim-looking, skull and ribcage with tusks lumbered out. (1,800 ATK)

"So I'll Tune together Aarakocra and Fossil Tusker…"

The bird-woman spread her wings and flew upwards, and glowing, golden rings appeared in the sky. The Rock monster followed as she flew through and they both dissolved.

"_Heir to a legacy of a lord of Shadows! Prince and founder with a great destiny! Come to lead your troops into battle once again!"_

**(*4 + *4 = *8)**

"_Synchro Summon... Dragonprince Jalal!"_

Landing dramatically was the avatar of the leader of the Shadowchasers, wearing full dragon-hide armor with sword in hand. (2,500 ATK)

"You see, Ezekiel, unlike you, I don't have to fight this battle alone… And numbers can boost courage. Even when you're being attacked by fire by someone spouting stories of damnation and dooms."

"I'm still not impressed!" shouted Ezekiel.

"Maybe this will impress you," said Hank. "Because I used two monsters to summon him, his sword gains two Fortune Counters, and I can expend them to draw once…"

The blade shimmered as Hank drew.

"And now it's time for a theory that is as frightening as anything you could have thought up, and ironically, this would have been _very _likely had doom _not _caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. I already told you what might have happened if they had survived and humans had been able to domesticate and train them…

"But what if dinosaurs had continued to evolve as humans do? They'd have had a million-year head start… They might have become the dominant species of this world…"

"Preposterous!" shouted Ezekiel, even thought he was clearly nervous.

"Is it?" asked Hank. "Think of it, my friend, a human's intelligence in the body of something as strong as a dinosaur… Humans would have been their slaves… Or perhaps even their _cattle. _Possibly even hunted for sport. They'd have been the masters of this world, and we would have only lived if they allowed it…

"I play the Equip Spell, Unstable Evolution, and Equip it to Gilasaurus."

The small Dinosaur stood upright, assumed a more humanoid form, and grew to about twice its size. (2,400 ATK)

"The attack boost is because my Life Points are lower than yours," continued Hank, "but when a Dinosaur is at least Level 6 and Equipped with that Spell, I can sacrifice it…"

Gilasaurus and its Equip Spell vanished.

"Behold what might have been… The true tyrant lizard, _Tyranno Octavius!" _

The ground shook again, and a monster appeared that, while not as large as the Battle Titan, was just as fierce. While possessing the same general features as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, it was a nine-foot-tall full humanoid, dressed in bronze plate mail in the style of a Roman Centurion, complete with a crested helmet, sword, and a shield with a dinosaur's head painted on it. (2,500 ATK)

"And now what?" asked Ezekiel, crossing his arms.

"Simple, you lose," replied Hank. "Paleozoic Fossil Dragon – Skullgeoth, destroy Inferno!"

The skeleton started to lumber towards the fire monster.

"Oh, and by the way…" said Hank, "not only can my monster inflict damage by attacking a monster that's defending, but when it attacks, I can switch the Attack Score of your monster with its Defense Score."

"You mean…" said Ezekiel.

Before he could take this in, Hank snapped his fingers, and Inferno slumped a little. (1,100 DEF) Ezekiel screamed as the huge Fossil stomped it flat.

**(H: 200) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 2,600)**

"Now I can use Tyranno Octavius' effect," said Hank. "You lost 2,400 Life Points, so that's exactly how much is added to his Attack Score for this next strike."

"This can't be!" screamed Ezekiel.

The Dinosaur general lifted his weapon, his Attack Score rising to 4,900. With one solid blow, he smote Hazy Flame Basiltrice, cleaving it down the middle."

"How…" gasped Ezekiel.

He fell on one knee.

"How could I lose? What I saw… Could it all have been wrong?"

"You're a false prophet, Zeke," replied Hank. "You were always a loser, and you were never saving _anyone. _From primitive times, man knew that fire is a tool that can provide light and warmth… It can cook food and keep the dangerous beasts at bay…

"But _they _knew, as the dinosaurs – probably – found out the hard way, that using it the way _you _do can only destroy."

With that, Jalal's sword cut across the phoelarch's chest, and he collapsed like a rag doll.

**(H: 200) - - - - - - - - - - (E: 0)**

Hank looked around. It seemed that the fires he had started had all turned to wet ash, the vegetation too soaked by the rain for it to have gone far. Even so, a lot of trees had been scorched, and underbrush had been burned.

He tapped his Duel Disk and spoke into it.

"Felix, you there?" he asked.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Moscow. It was about nine PM, local time.

In a gentleman's club, a middle-aged, portly, well-dressed man was sipping a whiskey sour, his fourth one that evening. He was one of only three people in the club right now (and one of them was the bartender) and he was very, _very _nervous. Not only because he dreaded what his wife and doctor would do to him if they found out he was drinking again, but because of some other issues that had caused him to _need _the drink.

"VALENTIN!" shouted a voice that, while in Russian, had a clear British accent.

The heavy set man nearly fell out of his chair as he turned towards the door. A much younger man in a suit with chestnut hair and glasses was there, and he looked _very _angry.

"Hello, Valentin," he growled, walking up to the man's table.

"Oh, uh, Felix," gasped the man. "I, uh… Take it… it was a dead end? Your operative found… nothing?"

"Well, he didn't find the 'suspicious yikaria' you told me about…" replied Felix, "but he _did _find a guy preaching Biblical verse about fire and brimstone…"

"Uh… Sounds downright… flamboyant…" gulped Valentin.

"Now, there are no laws I can think of against making sermons like that," said Felix, "however, using actual fire as a visual aid and almost starting a wildfire while doing so is a _very _different story!"

He grabbed the man by the collar.

"I don't believe for a minute that some looney just decided for no reason at all to choose the middle of the forest to make a doomsday sermon and cause trouble," he snarled. "I just checked your bank account, and noticed you just gained a windfall of about fifteen million rubles. About six-hundred thousand British pounds, I believe, and I think that's the amount you need to pay off those gambling debts of yours. Fancy that."

"Okay, okay!" pleaded Valentin. "The tip I gave you was from someone else who gave it to me the money as… encouragement. I've been down on my luck, Felix, I can barely pay the dues for this club these days!"

"You're going to need even more for a lawyer if the Federal Forest Agency of Russia finds out about this," replied Felix. "Now, unless you want me to drag your ass down to the Ministry offices so we can discuss it with them, I suggest you tell me who your tipster is."

Valentin gulped, and nervously reached into his jacket pocket.

"Uh, will a phone number do or just an e-mail?" he stammered.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**LIVING FOSSIL (Spell Card)**

**Equip Spell**

**Image: **A cartoonish dinosaur dressed up in a tuxedo and top hat, holding a cane.

**Card Description: **Select 1 monster from your Graveyard. Special Summon the selected Monster and Equip it with this card. Reduce the Equipped Monster's ATK by 1,000 and negate its effect. If this card leaves the field, destroy the Equipped Monster.

_Note: "Living Fossil" was first used by Misawa in the "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" episode "The Duel Off (Part 1)"._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**FOSSIL FUSION (Spell Card)**

**Normal Spell**

**Image: **Similar to "Polymerization", with dinosaur skeletons replacing the two dragons.

**Card Description:** Select 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck that includes the word "Fossil" in its name. Banish the listed Fusion Material Monsters on the card from the appropriate players' Graveyards; summon the Fusion Monster. (This is considered a Fusion Summon.)

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**PALEOZOIC FOSSIL DRAGON – SKULLGEOTH (Monster Card)**

**Rock/Earth/Fusion/Effect/Lvl8/3,500/0**

_1 Rock-Type monster from your Graveyard + 1 Level 8 or higher Dinosaur-Type monster from your opponent's Graveyard._

**Effect:**This card cannot be Special Summoned except by the effect of "Fossil Fusion" When this card attacks, you can switch the ATK and DEF of the attack-target monster during the Damage Step only. This card inflicts trampling damage.

_Note: "_Paleozoic Fossil Dragon – Skullgeoth" was first used by Jim in the _"Yu-Gi-Oh GX" episode "Primal Instinct". _

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**VOLCANO GOD'S RETRIBUTION (Spell Card)**

**Normal Spell**

**Image: **Hazy Flame Sphynx and Hazy Flame Mantikor fleeing from a raging Pyrorex the Elemental Lord in the background as volcanos erupt to either side of it, under a smoky sky.

**Card Description: **Activate when you take damage from a direct attack; for every 1,000 points of damage you take, Special Summon 1 non-Xyz "Hazy Flame" monster from your Graveyard in Attack Position and place a "Dark Haze Counter" on it. A monster with a "Dark Haze Counter" cannot use its effect and is banished if it leaves the field, and if destroyed by your opponent (via battle or via card effect) you take damage equal to its base ATK).

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**RUNE LORD (Monster Card)**

**Warrior/Fire/Effect/Lvl4/1,400/1,800**

**Effect:** If this card is sent from your hand or the field to the Graveyard, banish it; then, if you Summon two or more Level 5 or higher monsters during the same turn, return it to your hand during the End Phase. You cannot use this effect if you Special Summon from the Extra Deck that turn; if you use this effect, you cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck on your next turn.

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**EMERGENCY OVERLAY (Spell Card)**

**Quickplay Spell**

**Image: **Ambulanceroid and Gyroid rushing down a highway with Geargiagear XG looming behind them.

**Effect:** Activate only during your opponent's turn when your opponent declares an attack. Discard 1 card in your hand and banish all cards in your Spell Zone except this card; Select 1 Xyz Monster in your Extra Deck and monsters you control that are eligible for the Xyz Summon of that monster. Xyz Summon the selected monster, using the selected monsters you control.

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**AARAKOCRA (Monster Card)**

**Winged Beast/Wind/Gemini/Effect/Lvl4/1,400/1,200**

**Effect:** This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is face-up on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with these effects:

* This card becomes a Tuner Monster.

* Select 2 face-up monsters (not including this one) and change the Level of one of the selected monsters to that of the other. You can only use this effect once. A monster whose Level is changed this way cannot be used for an Xyz Summon.

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**STEEL SHELLED**** ANKLOSAUR** **(Monster Card)**

**Dinosaur/Earth/Effect/Lvl7/2,000/1,600**

**Effect: **You may Special Summon this card (from your hand) if your opponent controls at least 2 monsters more than you do; if summoned this way, this card cannot attack in the same turn. If this card would be destroyed by battle while in Attack Position, you may reduce its ATK and DEF by 500 apiece to prevent it from being destroyed.

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**UNSTOPPABLE RAGE (Spell Card)**

**Quickplay Spell**

**Image: **An angry Megazowler plowing through Goblin Attack Force and throwing them aside.

**Effect: **Activate during your Main Phase 2 if you took battle damage 2 or more times from attacks on the same Dinosaur-Type monster, and that monster was not destroyed. Draw 2 cards; then, select 1 of the drawn cards and discard it.

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**HYPER METABOLIZE (Trap Card)**

**Normal Trap**

**Image: **A Black Tyranno standing over the corpse of a Baggy Pants Lavasaurus, its flame smoldering and diming, and a Pompadour Blizzardon, its scales melting quickly.

**Effect: **Activate during your Main Phase 2. You may make a second Normal Summon for the turn. This second Normal Summon must be of a Dinosaur-Type monster summoned by Tribute Summon, and the Tribute(s) must be Level 5 or higher. Until your next Standby Phase, the monster summoned via this second Normal Summon cannot be destroyed by attacks or card effects.

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**TYRANNO OCTAVIUS** **(Monster Card)**

**Dinosaur/Earth/Effect/Lvl10/2,500/2,500**

**Effect: **Cannot be Normal Summoned or set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except via its own effect, and cannot be Summoned any other ways. This card can be Special Summoned from your hand or from your Graveyard by Tributing a Level 5 or higher Dinosaur-Type monster you control Equipped with "Unstable Evolution". Once per turn, during your turn, if Battle Damage is inflicted upon either player, increase the ATK of this card by the amount of damage taken until the End Phase.

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_**Jemorille: Odd things were afoot for the Shadowchasers on two continents. A member's former loved one had returned acting like some crazed conspiracy theorist, and three Shadowkind of questionable sanity – all three with powers born of fire – had been apprehended in or near focal points of famous conspiracy theories, their actions echoing those old rumors.**_

_**But this last one, which seemed more like an assault on the Shadowchaser himself, had brought a possible lead. Felix had long suspected Valentin's connections to Russian smuggling rings, and was pretty sure the threat of prison had made him too scared to lie. **_

_**Still… What they would find next would come as a shock… But before that, more trouble was brewing…**_

"_**Smooth Criminal" is coming soon. **_

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**Shadowchaser Files: Personalities**

**Benjamin St. Croix, Pursuer of an Impossible Task**

Here's the situation: You have to find someone. Unfortunately, you don't know his name. Or what he looks like. He (or she, to be completely fair) can be anyone, or any age, any ethnic group, any social class, and could be _anywhere _in the world. You don't know who this person is working for, if anyone, or anyone this person might know. Your one clue is a small scrap of yellow cloth.

Certainly, your odds of success could not be slimmer. Why do you search for this person? Because your life has no other purpose.

Benjamin St. Croix never considered himself special. He was, to all considered, an average guy who had a steady job. Of course, the fact that his job was a high-paid hired gun the infamous League of Assassins may have set him apart a little, but other than that, he was much like anyone else, so long as you weren't his mark.

Of course, Ben never denied that he was a murderer, so he made it a point never to look deeply into who his mark was. More than one member of the League had done so, and having hesitation could get an assassin killed… Or even worse, make him love his job too much.

And he knew there was a risk that a grief-stricken friend or loved one of a victim might find out who he was, and come after him. Or send someone else to do it. So he was careful. He always sat with his back to a wall in restaurants, and tried to sleep light, always with an alarm on or a watchman nearby. And he never stayed in one place more than one night.

But one night, all his precautions proved for naught. While asleep in a hotel in Florence, someone snuck into his room. He woke up in time to face the attacker, but it was too late. A gun fired, and he was dead.

He only saw one thing before the cold darkness overtook him… A scrap of yellow cloth, maybe a scarf or bandana worn by the assailant. That was all. It was too dark to see anything else.

But he was too stubborn to die. Sometimes, rarely, a murder victim with an incredibly strong iron will can defy the grave in an attempt to wreck vengeance upon his murderer, coming back as an undead being called a reverent. Benjamin managed to do so, and now wished nothing more than to find his killer and drag that person to the grave with him.

But unlike most revenants, he had no idea who his target was. That was fifteen years ago, and since then, Benjamin St. Croix has pursued this goal, the one thing that defines his existence. Unable to truly die and rest in his grave until he completes this task, the yellow cloth is his only clue.

One can imagine how hopeless his task seems. He's broken into the forensic lab in Florence, only to find that his death is a cold case. Ice cold. They found no fingerprints or fibers at the scene, and no-one in the hotel that night saw anyone who didn't belong there, even though many heard the gunshot. Even the make and model of the gun is a mystery; the bullet went through him, and was presumably taken by the killer.

He has precious few allies, knowing that he can't do research on anyone who might have wanted him dead to question them. Nor can he ask his former fellows in the League for help. Even if there were any who would aid a zombie bent on revenge, the League has a strict policy: members who get in trouble as a result of their marks are on their own.

Benjamin has said that he will know his victim when he sees him. Or her. Of course, it is possible that the yellow cloth was discarded by the victim a long time ago. One can only imagine what might happen if the victim dies of old age before Benjamin finds him… He may be forced to search forever.

**Story Ideas: **Benjamin is not used to trusting people, and now is no different. He realizes that few people would ever agree to help him once they knew of his former profession. Of course, he isn't above using anyone as unwitting pawns. While he bears no malice to anyone except his murderer, he will stop at nothing to reach his goal. After all, it's not like he has anything left to lose.

As a living human, Benjamin was the kind of assassin who would use a disguise to get close to a victim, then use a small, easily concealable weapon. Revenants rarely use any sort of weapons, however, typically using their bare hands. Still, some of his old skills come in handy even in this form. He always surveys an area before entering it, always makes sure he has a clear path to an escape route, and usually attacks by stealth.

Should it come to Duel Monsters, he would try to use something powerful and reliable, not being too proud to use any loophole he could find to make a Power Deck. He's also not too proud to simply run if a duel turns against him; he has one goal, and if something doesn't help him towards it, he doesn't consider it important

As for who his killer is, that is completely open-ended. The obvious theory is that it was a friend or loved one of a victim, but there are other possibilities; maybe he saw something he shouldn't have on a job, or maybe he was double-crossed by his own organization for reasons only they know. An author who wishes to use this plot device should certainly prepare a worthy for, but whether he is good or evil is a variable that would be hard to determine.


	10. Smooth Criminal

_Author's note: I have to make a brief disclaimer here. The rights to song in this chapter were first used in a cartoon from the 1980's; I don't believe it was ever released in any single by any artist, so I'll give credit to the studio, Fred Wolf Films._

_What was the cartoon? Eh… PM me if you want to know._

_Also, I want to say I'm rather surprised how well-received the last chapter was. I got a lot of good feedback even from folks who claim to be Catholic. In truth, I'm not anti-religious, but I do _despise _people who pervert what the Good Book says and twists the words in it in an excuse to spread hateful agendas. I feel this is hypocrisy at its worst. Ezekiel was meant to be a satire of people like that, and I trust I need explain no further._

_Now that we've gotten that out of the way…_

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_**In the last chapter, Hank mentioned Nibiru. This is a crazy conspiracy theory that a small percentage of mortals actually believe, but one that comes up every few years or so. It actually has some basis in fact, but not many actually know about it. I'll get into why in a minute.**_

_**Here's the story that is **_**usually **_**told. The believers think that Nibiru is some mad rogue planet that will eventually crash into Earth and bring about the apocalypse. None of these doomsayers can agree on when, but they all say it's imminent. The theory started with a crackpot named Nancy Lieder, who claimed that generous aliens had warned her that "Planet X" as she called it would crash into Earth in 2003. Another crackpot named Zecharia Sitchin, a known conspiracy theorist, claimed that ancient Sumerians were capable of space travel and had discovered a planet with an extreme elliptical orbit called Nibiru. (By the way, "Nibiru" is actually what the Sumerians had called Jupiter.) The two stories kind of got amalgamated together, and even though Sitchin denied he had anything to do with Lieder or believed that Nibiru meant the end of the world, it was too late… The myth of Nibiru had been created. **_

_**This only got worse when NASA thought they discovered a new planet in 1983. They later realized they had made a mistake and admitted it, but the thing is, nobody EVER believes a scientist when he makes a retraction of a scientific discovery. Mortals think scientists are gods or something, so when they change their stories, it must be a cover-up. Some even think governments are building bunkers to ride out the cataclysm in, so that they can conquer and enslave the survivors once it passes. (As if a bunker could protect anyone if it happened. The movie **_**Armageddon **_**was frightening because the asteroid was the size of Texas, when in truth, one the size of Houston would be enough to wipe out humanity. But a whole planet?)**_

_**Well, 2003 came and went, but this conspiracy theory still persists, with new dates being added each time old ones pass with Nibiru being a no-show. It was even part of the Mayan Calendar theory, which I'll get into later.**_

_**So where does this downright absurd theory have basis in truth? Atropis, that's where. Atropis was a planet that may well have destroyed the world by crashing into it, not by accident, but on purpose. It's a sentient undead entity with godlike power bent on the eradication of life, and five-hundred years ago may well have been the greatest threat the Shadowchasers faced. **_

_**Still, this happened long before anyone thought up Nibiru, and crackpots can rest assured, the Shadowchasers are busy enough making sure they are prepared to fight Atropus if it ever comes back to worry about building bunkers to hide in if Nibiru shows up. (A bunker would have less chance of saving you from the horrible fate the World Born Dead would cause than it would that of a true asteroid anyway.)**_

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**CHAPTER NINE**

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**Smooth Criminal**

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The next day, in Cincinnati, around noon.

There were three business that profited a lot from Shadowkind clientele: Breweries, wineries, and distilleries. Not to mention the distributors of all three businesses.

Elves savored fine wine enjoying most every type made by humans, particularly European. A dwarf who didn't like ale was unheard of, and they thought plain old beer was rather weak. Halflings preferred regular beer, having a taste for stout and lagers. Gnomes, being the adventurous types, liked mixed drinks and fancy cocktails. (If they went to a restaurant that had drinks like that, they'd usually order one they never tried before.) Orcs… Well, to tell the truth, this was the one thing they agreed with dwarves on, but they liked even stronger stuff, like old-fashioned rum. Not to mention that no Yokai worth his salt would turn down good Sake or rice wine.

Of course, these races also made their own. Elven vineyards could make incredibly strong wine, and not just from grapes; they knew recipes for apple wine and berry wine from very old tomes. Dwarves could brew fiery ales from malt that was hard to even _grow, _along with strong honey mead that was hard to find in modern persisted of stuff that the rulers of the Feywild had called feywine what they didn't share with humans, but not because they were selfish; the stuff was _so _potent, that even one goblet could get an ogre hammered. Supposedly, they kept the stuff locked up and took it out for special occasions.

Not to mention the spirits that were available in other planes and dimensions. As hard as it was to believe, the Prison Plane of Carceri (known as Tartarus to most) had some good vineyards, and even made something called heartwine out of razorvine, a bramble known for its knife-like, bladed thorns. (Probably the only thing razorvine was good for other than a barricade.) If you spoke to someone like Estavan, he could get that… He could probably even get the mead served in Valhalla itself you paid him enough and signed a disclosure form.

Truth be told, it was _very _hard to find a race of Shadowkind known for being teetotalers, and not only did these companies get lots of business from Shadowkind, but there were _lots _of bars and taverns that catered to them specifically.

Some were even more specialized.

Following the directions given to him by Rena, Ray and his two henchmen walked up to a quaint-looking place with a not-so-quaint name over the door.

"Bugman's Mug?" said one of them, looking at it.

"Just try to stay out of trouble you two," grumbled Ray, as he opened the door.

A second later, as they walked in to the sounds of laughter and the smell of pipe tobacco, Ray wondered whether or not Rena had sent him here to annoy him. This place, which had been built to resemble a medieval-style tavern, was certainly popular with dwarves. Beer and ale was being drawn by the bartender from old-fashioned wooden barrels, and the dozen or so dwarven patrons were chuckling while talking amongst themselves at wooden tables. (And seeing as this was only noon, this was obviously not the busiest time of the day.)

Still, there weren't only dwarves here. In the corner there were four guys who were a little shorter who had beards – but their beards were shorter than that of any self-respecting dwarf – dressed in colorful green and brown clothing with slouch hats, smoking from rather strange pipes. (It's hard to describe without a picture, but imagine a wooden smoking pipe the side of a walking stick in the general shape of a saxophone, which the smoker braces against his foot while sitting, smoking from the mouthpiece as one would that of a hookah, and you have a general idea.) Ray assumed they were leprechauns, and he knew enough not to start trouble with them.

Speaking of the bartender, she – yes, she – was the only human here, presumably. She was a tall, raven-haired beauty in a fancy red dress with a moderate amount of cleavage; she looked dressed more like someone who was about to attend a fancy dinner party rather than serve a bunch of rowdy dwarves. Of course, her _incredibly _dark eyebrows made Ray's two henchmen nervous.

"Boss, we're gonna wait outside…" said one of them, turning around.

"Get back here, Bert!" shouted Ray, grabbing him. "You scared of _that?_"

He pulled the two of them up to the bar, where the odd woman had been watching them.

"Uh, I was told you knew something about…" he started. "What happened in Green Bay a few weeks ago?"

"This have anything to do with a certain mobster who was, uh, rubbed out?" she asked.

She leaned on the table and smiled wickedly.

"You know something?" asked Ray.

"Nothing whatsoever…" she replied. "I don't _know _anything about any illegal activities…"

She leaned back against the wall.

"But I do listen to the folks who come in here, and you'd be amazed at the… rumors you hear after some people who aren't regulars have a few pints."

Ray looked her in the eye, and then threw a twenty-dollar bill on the counter. She picked it up, and looked at him with a far friendlier smile. Then she picked up a mug next to her and started drinking from it.

"You like to play billiards?" she asked between sips, motioning towards the other side of the barroom with a nod.

Ray looked, and the billiards room was clearly marked.

"What the…" he said.

"Why don't you go play billiards?" she said. "You might find something."

Ray sighed a little, then turned to his two henchmen.

"Bert, Paul, listen closely," he said, "don't talk to anyone, don't draw attention to yourselves, and if you _must _order drinks, limit yourselves to well-known brand names, got it?"

"Got it," said Paul.

Ray put his sunglasses on, and walked towards the billiards room, as the barmaid put the mug down, her smile, unseen to him, turning wicked again.

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Ray wasn't stupid of course. He cautiously edged his way towards the billiards room, expecting an ambush. (Not that he was expecting it more than usual, seeing as he had dealt with dwarves before, and they weren't the type to do that.) Still, there only seemed to be one guy in there, shooting pool by himself at one table…

He was certainly no dwarf; he was much taller. Taller than Ray, and far-more muscular too. Not to mention that he had no beard, and dwarves typically didn't wear their hair that long. (Red wasn't a common hair color for them anyway.)

Ray couldn't get over his shock. This was indeed the guy had killed Clem, and it seemed that Ray had known who the killer was all along. He just didn't know that this guy and the murderer were the same person.

The muscular guy looked over his shoulder.

"Hiya, Ray," said the big guy.

"_Ferdinand?" _shouted the gangster. "What are _you _doing here?"

"Eh… playing pool?" he replied.

"I can _see _that!" shouted Ray. "Why the fuck did you come back?"

"Who ever said I left?" asked Ferdinand. "Maybe I was just taking time off. And is that any language to use to speak to an old friend? Thought you be happy to see me."

"We haven't spoken in ten years," growled Ray. "What in the world happened? Why did you leave?"

"Uh, was I supposed to ask permission?" asked Ferdinand. "There was nothing in my contract that said I couldn't quit… I didn't even have a contract…"

"Ferdinand," replied Ray, "you know as well as I do you can't just ditch on one of Shroud's jobs and leave her with a mess."

"What do you think she'd do if I actually told her I was quitting?" replied Ferdinand. "See, I got brains, unlike the guys who actually did that."

"Listen Ferdinand…" said Ray, as he reached inside his coat.

Ferdinand only turned his head enough to look Ray right in the eye, but it was enough to send a chill down the thug's spine.

"If you're planning on drawing a gun on me Ray," he said, coldly, "you'd better be real fucking sure you're fast enough to put me down before I get my hands on you, or they'll have to check dental records just to identify you."

Ray shivered a little, the frightening encounter with Rena still on his mind, and he also remembered some things he had seen Ferdinand do. He stopped.

"What happened to Clem?" he asked.

"He died," replied Ferdinand.

"How did he die?" asked Ray, getting angry again.

"Someone killed him," replied Ferdinand.

He was about to say something else, but Ferdinand interrupted him.

"If what you really want to know is if I killed him, yeah."

"Why?" asked Ray.

"Someone told me too," he replied.

"So you're a hired gun now?" asked Ray.

"Well, if you wanna call it that…" replied Ferdinand. "I do other stuff…"

_Let's try something else… _thought Ray.

"Why did someone want him killed?" he asked.

"Waiting for him to die of old age would have taken too long," replied Ferdinand.

"You're just wasting my time," said Ray. "Look, it's no skin off my nose why someone wanted the bastard dead, but…"

"…but Shroud wants to know, and you do everything she says because you're chicken-shit," replied Ferdinand. "Not someone with guts, like me. Why do you think I left? I wasn't about to spend my whole life like you, with my lips locked to her ass."

He paused to aim the cue. Ray was getting angrier now, but he didn't deny it.

"Five in the corner…" said Ferdinand.

He shot, and the five rolled into the corner pocket. Then he picked up the chalk and started to use it on the cue.

"If you wanted to save time, you should have just not come here," he continued. "If Red Shroud wants something, tell her I said she can come find me myself or she can go to hell. And if you move that hand one inch further…"

Ray quickly moved his hand away from the jacket pocket again.

"You think you're very funny, huh?" asked Ray. "You haven't changed a bit."

Ferdinand chuckled a little, and leaned the cue on his shoulder.

"Actually, Ray, I haven't changed at all," he said. "You may not know it, but you only _think _things change a lot, when they actually change very little. What you think is a change is usually just the same beer in a different bottle. There's an old joke I remember from '95… How did it go? Oh right…

"Bill Gates dies, winds up in the hereafter, and St. Peter says he can't decide whether to send him to Heaven or Hell. So he tells Gates he's gonna let _him _choose. Well, Gates, being the egghead he is, thinks that sounds suspicious, and asks to see them first.

"So, St. Peter shows him Heaven first, and it's a nice place full of fluffy clouds, nice music, and cute cherubs, all that. Then he shows him Hell, which is a nightclub with music, booze, and hot babes where they're having wild parties…"

"Well, Gates says that Heaven looks okay, but he thinks Hell is better. Fine, right? Well, two weeks better, St. Peter goes to check on him, and Gates is being tortured by demons in a far worse Hell full of fire and brimstone.

"Now's the part where you get ready to laugh…"

He paused to shoot again.

"Gates demands to know why it changed, and St. Peter says, 'This is the real Hell. The old one was the demo version'."

"Ha, ha, very funny," muttered Ray. "That's an old one. Your point?"

"Actually it's older than people think," replied Ferdinand. "Before Bill Gates was around, you could tell the same joke by replacing him with whoever was running for President at the time, and the difference between the two Hells was the first being campaign polling results, and the second being the result of the actual election.

"Or just with replace him with a lawyer – everyone loves evil lawyer jokes – and have St. Peter say at the end, 'That was our summer program.' Or just make him some average schmuck who ends up in Hell, and make the first one tourism and the second one immigration.

"So you see, I really haven't changed much… I'm the same… Just with improvements. I mean, seriously… Used to be that I'd come to a bar like this, and I could only play straight pool or billiards, maybe snooker or carambole if they had the right table… Eight ball in the left corner…"

He shot, and the eight ball sank.

"But dwarves have a lot of other neat billiard games, and I've learned them since then. Like shuggy, dam-go, and pontun. They have some cool card games too, like triangle tops and skull rummy.

"Of course, the elves have much better card games like ArcoMage…"

"You've been hanging out with elves?" asked Ray, in disgust.

"You got a problem with that?" asked Ferdinand. "One thing I've learned from them is, they're a lot smarter than humans are. Well, at least humans like _you. _One card game that some of their bigwigs have is something called… Uh, knoliast, I think. One dame told me that you use a deck of more than a thousand cards, your hand size is randomly determined by a toss of several dice, and you'd need understanding of _at least _basic trig to keep score. Takes about a week to play a full game. She invited me to play once, but I turned it down…"

"Yeah, you don't even understand Duel Monsters very well…" chuckled Ray.

Ferdinand put the cue down and grumbled a little. Now he looked a little annoyed.

"Damn it, Ray," he said, turning around. "You're never gonna let me live it down, are ya?"

"You bet," chuckled Ray. "That c-note I won from you was enough to buy the DVR collection I wanted."

"You only won 'cause I was having a bad day," replied Ferdinand. "I could beat your sorry ass any day of the week."

"Oh, is that a challenge?" asked Ray.

Ferd rubbed his chin. Then he took off one of his fingerless gloves, and threw it at Ray's feet.

"Always have to make a big deal out of everything," said Ray. "Fine, anything to make a fool out of you again."

Ray quickly took something else out of his coat – the other side – about the size of a small iPad – and it clipped to his wristband, unfolding into a Duel Disk. Ferdinand responded with one of his own.

"By the way, Ray," said Ferdinand. "Money and DVRs are all good stuff, but I have another wager in mind… Something less frivolous. You still got the Maagardium Pass?"

"The one that lets you…" gasped Ray. Ferdinand nodded.

"Yeah, I've got it…" replied Ray, "but why the fuck would you want to go _there?"_

"None of your business!" replied Ferdinand. "You want to know the deal with Clem, and I want the Maagardium Pass… So…"

"All right! It's a bet!" shouted Ray.

_Even if I lose, _he thought, _what do I care if this idiot wants to go there? He'll just end up like all the other jerks who tried._

He flipped the D-Gazer over his eye, and the VR link between them set as the digital symbols covered the pool hall.

_At least I can still kick this muscle-bound bastard's ass _this _way, _thought Ray.

**(Ferdinand: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Ray: 8,000)**

"You challenged me," said Ray, as he drew, "so I think that means I go first…

"Heh, heh, heh… I summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon LVL4!" he shouted.

There was a small wisp of fire, and a man-sized Dragon with bird-like wings and features appeared. (1,600 ATK)

"But that's just a warm up, and 'warm' is the key word there… Level Up!"

The Spell Card formed, and with a loud cry and burning golden flames, a larger cross between a Dragon and a huge bird of prey with bronze armor and sharp, metal wings hovered in front of Ray. (2,300 ATK)

"Horus the Black Flame Dragon LVL6! I can't attack this turn, and since I _want _to do that ASAP, it's your move."

Ferd wasted no time in drawing, and then playing two cards, fitting one in his Spell Zoe and the other in his Field Zone.

"I'm setting a monster," said Ferd, "and then playing the Field Spell… Pandemonium!"

As the reversed monster appeared, the pool hall seemed to catch fire, the walls burning down as the air filled with foul-smelling smoke and haze. Sinister-looking archways appeared around them as the floor turned to a crimson, ribbed pattern with a pool of lava in the center.

Ray had seen this Field Spell before – multiple times, in fact, and it was clear what sort of monsters Ferd was using. Still, every time he saw this place, his heart beat a little more erratically. Even worse, Ferd had _the look _now, a look Ray remembered from ten years ago, one that usually meant he was done joking and got very, very serious.

Then Ferd set another card behind the monster. "Your move…" he said smugly.

"Oh, you got it…" said Ray, drawing a card.

"I'm summoning my little friend, Card Trooper," he said.

There were some loud beeps, whistles, and chirps, and a cute robot with guns for arms rolled onto the field using wheels. (400 ATK)

"Then I just have to chuck three cards from my deck, and this little guy gets a little more octane."

He took the top three cards from his deck, looked at them quickly, and then discarded them, and the small robot shot up to a score of 1,900.

"Scared, Ferd?" he said.

"You wish," replied Ferdinand.

"Well I'll bet…" said Ray.

A huge blast of black fire from Horus' jaws hit the set card, pulverizing the small monster.

"…NOW you are!"

"No I'm not, because you just killed my Archfiend Heiress," he replied, "and when that happens…"

A greenish bubble floated out of the lava towards him.

"…I get to take another Archfiend from my deck."

The bubble burst, turning into a card that fell into his hand.

"_Any _Archfiend?" shouted Ray.

"Yup, any," replied Ferd. Then he looked at Card Trooper and made a beckoning motion with his hand.

"Okay, you're asking for it!" yelled Ray. "Attack him directly, Card Trooper!"

The small robot's twin guns fired, striking Ferd in the chest.

**(F: 6,100) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 8,000)**

"Tickles a little," he said with a chuckle. "But fortunately…"

His Trap Card lifted up, and a small female imp with curved horns and a wand with a skull on the tip appeared with a giggle. (0 DEF)

"Since Heiress has less than 1,900 Attack Points, my Damage Gate brings her back."

"Shit…" said Ray. "I'm setting this card, then I'm ending, and then…"

A face-down card appeared, and he stabbed his thumb down.

"...which obviously means…"

Horus roared as its muscles bulged, and the golden fire grew brighter and stronger. It doubled in size…

Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 appeared in its place. (3,000 ATK)

"I think you know how this guy works," said Ray. "He can whack any Spell Card you try to play."

Ferd looked at Card Trooper as it sank to 400 points again. Then he drew, and played a Monster Card.

"Yeah, tell it to my Mad Archfiend," he said.

There was a cackling, insane laugh, and a gaunt Fiend with a mop of red hair, a sunken face, and an empty cavity with a skull inside the chest appeared. It lifted bony, sharp claws. (1,800 ATK)

"Not bad," said Ray. "But I can do better… Call of the Haunted, activate!"

His Trap Card lifted, and a tall, intimidating creature leapt through the floor, surrounded by crackling electricity, an android with a large cranium, goggles, and a metal grill for a mouth, wearing a black overcoat… This monster was only too recognizable…

"Jinzo!" shouted Ferd.

(2,400 ATK)

"You bet it's Jinzo!" laughed Ray, "and with him _and _Horus on the field, I just cut off your ability to use Spells _and _Traps. Still think I only beat you by luck?"

"Maybe not, but…" said Ferd. "Hey… More of a challenge… And so long as I've summoned Mad Archfiend… Attack his Card Trooper with Bone Splash!"

The Fiend let out a hideous laugh, and bone spurs launched from its chest like a spray of darts, embedding in Card Trooper's metal armor. It fell apart into small pieces of hot metal.

**(F: 6,100) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 6,400)**

"Not exactly how I'd have wanted it, but I still get to draw once," said Ray.

"Then move…" said Ferd, as his opponent drew, "and by all means, take your time, I got nowhere to go."

"Why sure…" said Ray.

He drew, then smiled broadly. He clearly seemed to be enjoying himself.

"You can't use Spells," he said, "but I can… And I have Shield Crush!"

The Spell appeared, and a wave of force rippled from it, hitting Heiress and smashing her.

"I know that destroying an Archfiend outside of battle triggers Pandemonium's effect and lets you get a weaker one," he continued, "but face it, there really aren't that many Level 2 Archfiends."

"True, I don't have any," replied Ferd, "but I can still use Heiress' effect."

Another bubble floated out of the pool, towards his hand.

"Well, then, I'll…" said Ray.

Horus looked at Ferd, smoke pouring from its jaws in anxious anticipation. Jinzo looked at him too, its expression, or rather, the lack of it, hard to determine.

"On second thought…" he said. "Maybe I _should _take my time. I'm not going to attack just yet… I think I'll summon my Cardcar D."

He threw the card on his Disk, and there was a squeal of engines as a sleek, blue car with a dragon-like insignia and the letter D on its trunk sped onto the field. (800 ATK)

"How long did it take you to save up for _that?" _asked Ferdinand. "Last time I checked, the only guys working for Shroud who made that much money were her groomer-guards."

Ray growled, but he really couldn't hold it against Ferd for saying that, because it was true. Red Shroud's had five henchmen who were with her at all times who were both bodyguards and personal beauticians, who could fix or change her hair, makeup, or clothing any time she demanded it. Not to mention provide a mirror whenever she wanted to admire herself. She was _that _vain. Some would call this an undignified job, but these five bodyguards were paid more than some criminals that other bodyguards were hired to protect.

"I'm sacrificing Cardcar D to draw twice," he said.

The car disappeared, and he made two draws.

"That means I gotta end now, but hey, I got nowhere to go…"

"You sure you trust those two jerks you have watching your back out there?" asked Ferdinand. "My opinion, Paul would turn his own mother in for a drink on the house."

Ray nervously looked towards the door… To be honest, Ferd was right about _that _too. All of a sudden, this didn't seem as fun right now…

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Outside in the main room, Bert and Paul were doing their best to keep inconspicuous and stick to the Budweiser. Still, one thing they couldn't help but do was gawk at the waitress. Probably because she seemed to be _purposely _trying to move seductively in such a way that they couldn't help but stare at her admittedly fine assets whenever they looked at her.

One of the four leprechauns looked over at them, and put his pipe aside.

"Looks like Neela has them hooked," he said.

"Dunno…" said another. "Think she needs help to land them?"

The first one who had spoken smirked. Then the other three put the pipes aside, and two of them switched them for violins – which clearly hadn't been there before – and the third for a concertina. (Which was a squeezebox instrument like an accordion, but smaller.)

All four of them stood up as the three with instruments started to play. It was a catchy, lively song, and everyone in the bar – Bert and Paul most of all – took notice.

"Neela!" laughed the fourth leprechaun.

The barmaid quickly grabbed a large mug and filled it at the spigot. Then what happened was something the two humans could not _believe. _The leprechaun ran towards the bar as she slid it down the bar towards him. He _somersaulted _as it reached the edge, catching the mug and landing feet first _on top _of the bar.

He hadn't spilled even a drop. He drank the contents in three gulps as Bert and Paul could only stare and the music from his brothers only got faster.

It only got crazier. Neela actually _threw _him another one, which again, he caught flawlessly. (How he got rid of the empty mug, they had no idea.) But he didn't drink it right away. Instead he started to sing:

"_I raise my glass, I hum a tune, and suddenly Ireland's in this room. _

"_So gather 'round, to its health. _

"_Home-fiddle-dee-doorey!"_

To which the dwarves all raised their mugs and responded:

"_**Home-fiddle-dee-doorey!"**_

"_I smell the hills I used to roam, the cool wet marsh where heather's grown._

"_I soon return when my work is done._

"_Home-fiddle-dee-doorey!"_

"_**Home-fiddle-dee-doorey!"**_

"_I've traveled many continents, through towns and ports of consequence,_

"_But all and all, there's just one place for me._

"_A pub can bring my dreams so near, so join me in a toast of cheer,_

"_And sing with me of home that I love so._

"_I feel the breeze, the Irish air, and now the feeling is everywhere._

"_So drink up boys, I'll soon be there,_

"_Home-fiddle-dee-doorey!"_

"_**Home-fiddle-dee-doorey!"**_

"_So drink up boys, help me there…_

"_Home-fiddle-dee-doorey!"_

"_**Home-fiddle-dee-doorey!"**_

His brothers didn't stop playing yet. As the tune continued, he landed on one knee, put the mug to his lips and drank it in large gulps. Then he flung the empty mug back to Neela – which she caught – and as the music started to close, leaped off the bar with a backflip, disappearing with his three brothers in swirls of multicolored light as he landed.

The music didn't stop right away, but rather slowly died down, gradually. Bert and Paul just stared in silence for a minute or two. Then Bert put his glass down.

"You know something I haven't had in a long time?" asked Paul. "Cap'n Crunch."

Then he held his forehead and shook his head.

"Uh, lady?" he said to Neela. "I'm gonna need something stiffer than this…"

"Same here," said Paul, glancing at the back room.

_Damn, what's taking him so long, _he thought.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Ferdinand drew, then from his hand of cards a shimmer came from the third one to the right. He took it.

"I sacrifice Mad Archfiend," he said, as the demon burst into shards of bone, "to summon Archfiend Giant!"

The lava pool started to bubble and churn, and a large, ogre-sized humanoid stood up out of it. He certainly lived up to his name, standing about eight feet tall with his arms crossed, with mauve skin and armor, along with wings, horns, and wine-red, shoulder-length hair. (2,400 ATK)

_Crap, if he attacks Jinzo… _thought Ray.

"I end my turn…" said Ferd.

_Eh? _thought Ray. _What the sam-hill is he planning?_

He drew, then looked at the card carefully.

_Well this won't complete my combo, _he thought, _but it comes close…_

"I use Burden of the Mighty!" he shouted, as the Continuous Spell rose behind Jinzo. "So your giant isn't so tough now… In fact, the tougher a monster is, the weaker this card makes it!"

The giant grumbled, and fell to an attack Score of 1,800.

"Jinzo, wipe it out with Cyber Energy Shock!"

The android palmed a globe of dark, crackling energy, and then hurled it, slamming into Archfiend Giant; its armor cracked and it toppled backwards before vanishing in dark smoke.

"You're next… Black Mega Flame!"

Horus spouted its deadly fire next, and for the first time, Ferdinand seemed to react… Not _much, _and he seemed more annoyed than hurt, but still…

**(F: 2,500) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 6,400)**

To Ray's surprise, when the smoke cleared, a _horrid _monster was in front of Ferd, a demon with mottled, armored, black skin, spikes protruding from all over, and six legs on its centaurian lower body.

"That's Tragoedia!" shouted Ray.

"Yup," replied Ferd. "I can get pretty good stuff from _my _salary too. Anyway, this guy's Defense Score is 600 for every card in my hand…"

He held up his hand, which had four cards at the moment. (2,400 DEF)

"Seems Heiress was pretty useful, dontcha think?"

"Ah, big fucking deal," replied Ray. "Burden of the Mighty reduces its Attack Score to 1,400, so it doesn't even come close."

"It can do other things besides attack…" replied Ferd.

Ray stopped. Then he remembered that card's other effects…He quickly set another two more cards into his Spell Zone, then played another Continuous Spell.

"Just to be on the safe side," he said, "I'll use Level Reset. We'll get to that later, if we have to."

He nodded to his opponent.

_If he actually does it, this might take a while longer, _he thought. _Is he actually trying to stall?_

Ferd grinned widely, showing flawless teeth as he did, then drew.

"I'm sending Imprisoned Queen Archfiend from my hand to the Graveyard!" he said, loudly.

As he tossed the card, Tragoedia locked eyes with Horus, and both glowed.

"By doing so, Tragoedia's effect activates, and a monster with the same Level as the one I discarded becomes mine. So since she's Level 8… C'mere, Horus!"

Foul black mist poured from Tragoedia's mouth and eyes, and then the stuff surrounded Horus, pulling the huge Dragon over to Ferd's side of the field.

"Yeah, well, I don't see what good he'll do you," replied Ray. "My Spell Card started to affect him as soon as he switched sides."

(2,200 ATK)

"I know," said Ferd, "so I'll get rid of him…"

The huge Dragon vanished into a shower of burning embers. Then the lava pool started to bubble and churn again, and a new Archfiend stepped out. This one had a violet metal exoskeleton – or armor, it was hard to tell – with a horizontal, ribbed pattern, large metal shoulder guards, gantlets, boots, and a horned helmet. Its face was skull-like. (2,500 ATK) – (1,900 ATK)

"And by summoning Archfiend Commander this way, I get to summon a Level 6 Archfiend from my Graveyard in Defense Mode. Good thing I have one."

The Giant appeared again, this time kneeling and wrapping its wings around itself. (1,600 DEF)

_This guy is starting to get annoying… _thought Ray.

"Your move, old friend," said Ferdinand, in a sarcastic tone.

"I'll show you 'old friend'," said Ray, making a draw. Then he laughed when he saw it and turned it forward.

"Take a look at this, you big cum-dump!" he shouted.

"Is it really necessary for you to cuss so much?" sighed Ferdinand.

Ray stopped laughing.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" he shouted. Then he played the card, and a fierce saber-tooth tiger with armored barding appeared next to Jinzo. (1,700 ATK)

"Horus, Jinzo, and King Tiger Wanghu, in the same deck, huh?" asked Ferd with a sigh. "I'm _so _scared."

"Oh like you could do better wise-ass?" Ray snapped, both of his monsters glowering (well it was hard to tell with Jinzo since glowering was more or less it's default setting).

"Well, let's see…" said Ferd, starting to count off on his fingers. "If I really wanted to build a Lockdown Deck, I could use Great Shogun Shen, Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En, Angel 07, Naturia Bamboo Shoot, Dark Simorgh with Anti Spell Fragrance…"

He noticed that Ray was seething in rage, a blood vessel in his head about to pop as he was barely listening.

"I could name more," continued Ferd. "But yeah, no disrespect to any of those guys considering even today they're still lethal in tandem, but you're not going to sweep me off my feet with a deck strategy you ripped off a magazine article."

"Ah, save it!" shouted Ray. "With him on the field, any monster you summon with an Attack Score that's 1,400 or lower will be torn to pieces before you can use it, and with my Spell Card, summoning anything stronger ain't gonna be easy. But first…"

Wanghu roared, leapt, and pounced on Tragoedia, making a swipe with its claw, and ripping it in half. Then, Jinzo's energy blast shot at Archfiend Commander, and the armored fiend shattered like broken pottery.

**(F: 2,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 6,400)**

"Huh… weird…" said Ray. "I use the Spell Card Level Modulation. You draw twice, but I get to bring someone back, and I think you'll recognize him…"

Ferd shrugged as he made two draws, and Horus' glowing eyes loomed behind Ray. It flew out of the shadows and looked at Ferd and Archfiend Giant.

It didn't look happy. (3,000 ATK)

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

In Shadowchaser Headquarters, Jabels was typing at his computer screen in a large control room. A beeping sound came from a monitor next to him.

He quickly turned on that monitor, and the face of the woman he had referred to as Ms. Phelps appeared in holographic form.

"Any luck, Jabels?" she asked.

"Well, Delores," replied Jabels, "yes and no. First of all, that phone number and email Felix gave me have both been discontinued, and the name was clearly an alias…"

"They must have figured out Felix was onto them," replied Delores.

"They probably skipped town right away just in case," said Jabels. "But don't worry, I was able to find out where the phone number was before it was discontinued. It was at a rented office in Prague, which was being used by someone named Dominic Falm.

"He's no longer there of course, but this guy, whoever he is, left a paper trail that hasn't gone cold yet… Maybe I can find just where he is…"

"Good luck…" said Delores. "Anyway, I've run a barrage of detection tests on that… marble thing that Dugan sent us, the one found with the cake.

"The results are… Well, it has a moderate magical aura, school unknown, moderate moral and ethical auras, alliances unknown, a small divine aura, source and domain of which unknown…"

"In other words, it's giving you the same problems that artifacts do?" asked Jabels.

"Well, that's the strange part," replied Dolores. "While an artifact's auras are unreadable, they tend to be very _strong. _If you want my honest opinion, I think this might be a device that's meant to enhance or modify something bigger.

"Just what, it's impossible to tell. We could have found the gemstone that opens the Codex of Infinite Planes to the page detailing the Rain of Colorless Fire for all we know."

"_Bite your tongue!_" shouted Jabels. "Don't scare me like that!"

He looked at her, and the look on her face was one that showed she clearly realized that was a bad example.

"Don't forget… Someone else wanted that thing… If God forbid someone found the Codex who can _use _it and we have something they need, it would be hard sleeping at night…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Had enough, dickbag?" asked Ray.

"You have one hell of an attitude, mister," said Ferdinand, his expression now _far _sterner.

He drew. Then looked at Ray hard.

"You haven't changed much either, you know? You're still the foul-mouthed, rude son-of-a-bitch you always were. And you know something? I'm not afraid now to tell you that the only reason I ever pretended to like you was because Shroud liked you more than she did me… But only because she likes bootlickers."

Then Archfiend Giant stood up into Attack Mode. (1,800 ATK)

"Going after my Tiger are you?" asked Ray. "Go ahead! The 100 Life Points I'll lose won't hurt a bit compared to what _you'll _lose on _my _turn."

"Actually, I'll deal with _him _later," replied Ferd. "For now, I summon Archfiend Cavalry."

There was a chilling, haunting whiney, and a skeletal, armored demon, riding a horse with barding that was also skeletal, galloped onto the floor of Pandemonium. (1,900 ATK)

"Crap, a member of the nineteen-hundred-club," growled Ray.

"You got it," said Ferd, "which means his Level is low enough for me to summon him but his Attack Score is high enough for him to survive being summoned with your Tiger on the field, barely."

(1,500 ATK)

Before Ray could question just what Ferd was up to, the Cavalry aimed its lance at Jinzo, and its Score shot up to 2,500. It urged its mount to a charge…

"HEY!" shouted Ray.

Then the lance speared the android through the chest in a shower of sparks, shattering as it did so. Still, it did the job. Jinzo fell over, the insides of its chest blowing outward as it hit the ground.

"HOW?" shouted Ray.

"Some big-name crooks gloat how a prison can't hold them, Ray," said Ferd. "But a small number of big-time crooks say that even if a prison can _hold _them, that's hardly a handicap at all. Remember my Imprisoned Queen Archfiend? So long as she's in my Graveyard and the field itself is Pandemonium, I can increase the Attack Score of a low-Level Fiend by a thousand points for one turn.

"Now for your Tiger…"

Archfiend Giant lifted his right arm, and a blazing spear made of green fire appeared in it, which he hurled at the beast. A look of panic appeared on Ray, but then he remembered one of his set cards. It lifted up, and while the Beast roared and the lance shattered, Wanghu didn't.

**(F: 2,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 6,200)**

"Safe Zone?" shouted Ferdinand. "That kind of defeats the whole purpose of a deck that uses Jinzo!"

"Who asked you?" growled Ray. "It worked, didn't it?"

"For now," said Ferdinand. "But it only protects him so long as Jinzo isn't there, and most guys who use Horus Decks would try to bring him back if they could.

"The whole problem with you and Duel Monsters Ray… it's not that you have a bad strategy. It's actually pretty lethal most of the time. The trouble is, it's really only _one _strategy with multiple parts, and once an opponent knocks out of those parts, you're in trouble. They say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, but the truth is, a chain is ruined if _any _of its links are busted."

"I suppose the elves you've gotten so chummy with told you that?" asked Ray.

"In one ear, and out the other,"muttered Ferdinand. "Well, at least now that Jinzo _is_ gone…"

Three face-down cards appeared behind his Fiends.

"Take a wild guess what kind of cards _those _are! It's your move…"

Archfiend Cavalry fell back to a Score of 1,500 as Ray drew.

"Smart-ass, son of a…" he said. "Horus, fricassee that Cavalry!"

"Watch this!" said Ferd. "I'm using the Destruct Potion Trap Card!"

One of his three set cards lifted, then spun around, and Archfiend Cavalry disappeared in a plume of Hellfire.

"Because my Trap destroyed him before you got a chance, Pandemonium's effect kicks in, and I get to take a weaker Archfiend from my deck…"

A gain, the foul gas bubble from the pit floated to his hand, and turned into a card.

"But Archfiend Cavalry also has an effect of its own. I get to Special Summon another Archfiend from my Graveyard…"

Again, Archfiend Commander crawled out of the lava, and he wasn't as angry now as he was before as he looked at Ray. He yawned and stretched, then looked at the gangster with a bored expression. (2,500 ATK –) (1,900 ATK)

"And don't forget, I get 1,500 Life Points form the Trap."

"Fine, I'll attack him instead!" screamed Ray. "DIE!"

Horus blew its flames at the Commander, but then, to Ray's utter shock, the Fiend knocked the fiery blast of death aside with a simple backhand slap, sending the wave back at the huge Dragon. There was a sound like a noise a cat made when its tail was stepped on, amplified by a hundred, and the Dragon collapsed into a charred corpse.

"How the…" he started.

"I'll tell you another problem you have, Ray," said Ferd, "you've really got a rotten temper."

Ray looked at his foe, and not only had he triggered another Trap, but someone even more hulking than Ferdinand was standing behind him – Dark Ruler Ha Des.

"See, I also activated Bark of Dark Ruler. With at least one Fiend on my field, I could pay my Life Points to reduce the Attack Score of hothead over there."

The ashes vanished, and so did Ha Des, in a cloud of black smoke and soot.

"I simply paid 1,200 Life Points, reducing your monster's Score by the same amount, to 1,800, just enough for Commander to defeat it. If you hadn't been so angry, maybe you'd have been more careful."

**(F: 2,300) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 4,400)**

_Calm down… _thought Ray. _Don't let this guy get to you…_

He discarded the last card in his hand, and the Level Reset card faded away like a ripple of light. Then with a blaze of burning wings, the smaller version of Horus appeared. (2,300 ATK)

"Because you destroyed it during my turn, I can send one card from my hand to the Graveyard and banish Level Reset itself to summon the Level 6 version. It can't use it's leveling up effect this turn, or course. However…"

Another black fire wave shot at Archfiend Commander, and he couldn't withstand it this time, collapsing into a pile of hot ash.

**(F: 1,900) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 4,400)**

"You might be using a deck full of devils, Ferd, but my monsters are the ones that are hotter than Hell!"

"Ugh…" said Ferd. "Don't quit your day job… It's my move…"

He flipped the top card from his deck and nodded.

"Got it…" he said. "First of all… I'm playing the Trade-In Spell Card. I'll send my Archfiend Empress to my Graveyard, then draw twice…"

He discarded the card, and made two draws. Then he looked at Ray with a broad, Cheshire Cat grin.

"I'm using the Equip Spell, Falling Down," he said.

"That won't work on Horus," replied Ray. "This version may not be able to prevent you from _using _Spells, but he _is _immune to them."

"I know, but there's another monster I can use it on," replied Ferdinand.

Four dark, ropy tendrils reached out of the card, grabbing King Tiger Wanghu, who whined as it was grabbed, and then dragged over to Ferdinand's side of the field.

"Then, I'm using the Call of the Haunted Trap Card," he continued, as one of his last two set cards lifted. "I'm proud to introduce… _Archfiend Empress!"_

The vaguely female demon who rose from the broken, flaming ground was almost ten feet tall. Whether she was wearing silvery, decorated plate armor, or whether her natural hide was metallic and resembled such and she actually had no clothing – other than a scarlet cape – was impossible to tell. She did have demonic, ram-like horns and a nasty-looking military fork, but her face was that of a young woman, which may have been attractive if not for the rest of her body. (2,900 ATK)

Ray gulped, but was relieved when she sank to a score of 2,100.

"You had me worried there for a minute," he said, "but…"

"Next on the agenda," said Ferd. "I'm summoning my second Archfiend Heiress…"

He played the card, and to Ray's surprise, the small imp sort of resembled a child-like version of Empress. (1,000 ATK) –) (700 ATK)

Now I'm getting rid of this Field Spell," he continued.

"Wha…" said Ray. 'Whatever for?"

"Because it's served its purpose, and I need something new now," replied Ferdinand. "Feast your eyes…"

He opened the Field Zone on his Disk and switched the Pandemonium card with a different one.

"On the dark citadel on the lowest rift of the lowest Circle of Hell… I play Archfiend Palabyrinth!"

As he played the card, the volcanic wasteland turned into a _dead _wasteland of ash, and a _huge, _evil castle rose behind Ferdinand as a blood-red sky started to appear above. It was a castle with several towers, all of them in defiance of architecture, built in impossible designs. Most of them resembled huge corkscrews, and were covered with giant horns and blades, stabbing into the hellish sky.

"That's where Terrorking rules from?" gasped Ray.

"Terrorking?" asked Ferdinand, with a slight laugh. "He hasn't ruled Pandemonium for years. As for his replacement, I'll be glad to introduce you, but first, all Fiends gain 500 Attack Points right away."

(Heiress: 1,200 ATK, Giant: 2,300 ATK, Empress: 2,400 ATK)

"Now, I'm going to use another effect of this Field Spell, and since I know you're a little dense, I'll talk _slowly. _I choose one of my Archfiends, then I banish one of my Fiends – not necessarily an Archfiend – and in return, I get to summon an Archfiend from my deck that's the same Level as the Archfiend I choose.

"But the one I banish can be a Fiend of _any_ Level, so if I choose Archfiend Empress, I can banish Heiress…"

The imp disappeared.

"…and summon Archfiend Emperor the First Lord of Horror!"

Ray stepped back as a shadow fell over the already dark Field. The demon that Empress' effect had summoned… Calling it a giant would be an understatement, this was a _titan. _It was nearly the size of the smaller towers of the palace behind it, a humanoid covered in a rough, jagged exoskeleton that seemed to be made of bone. Not fresh, clean bone, mind you, more like rotted bone pieced together, and they clearly weren't human bones. His head was a skull too, but it didn't even come _close _to human-like, being of alien design with horns and eyes that burned with embers, and to make it worse, he held a sword that was as long as he was tall, colored in such a way that made it look uncomfortably like bloodstained steel. (But exactly what a demon this huge could have fought to stain a sword that big was anyone's guess.)

(3,000 ATK)

The Emperor's Attack Score went up to 3,500, then down to 2,700 as it looked down on Ray.

"Know why Terrorking isn't king anymore?" asked Ferdinand. "Cause this guy kicked him out!"

"I believe you…" gasped Ray.

"Now, I'm using the big guy's effect," continued Ferdinand.

One of the two Archfiend Heiresses slipped out of his discard slot, and the giant demon stared Horus in the eye without blinking.

"By banishing a card from my hand or my Graveyard with the word 'Archfiend' in its name, this guy can destroy any card I want… Guess which one I want to destroy…"

He pointed at Horus, and the Dragon began to screech…

"In a pig's eye!" shouted Ray, as his last set card flipped up. "I use My Body as a Shield!"

The fiery eyebeam missed Horus completely, hitting Ray instead. He groaned a little, but then another beam shot from the card, striking Archfiend Emperor and blowing him to little pieces.

**(F: 1,900) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 2,900)**

"You almost had me, Ferd," he said. "Cost me 1,500 Life Points, but someone told me once, a mobster has to know how to spend his resources, because if he dies rich, it might get him a fancy funeral, but not much else."

"Yeah, _I'm _the one who told you that," replied Ferdinand. "And believe me, I know it…"

Then _his _last set card lifted up.

"I use the Trap Card, Archfiend's Roar," he said. "This costs a mere 500 Life Points, but I can summon Archfiend Emperor back…"

The ground broke open again, and true to the Trap's name, a roar accompanied the huge abomination's return. (2,700 ATK)

"I don't really need to don this," said Ferd. "Seeing as he's stronger than Horus even _with _your Burden card…"

He took the Archfiend's Roar card from his Graveyard.

"But ironically, see, Emperor can only use his effect once per turn… _However, _since he went to the Graveyard and came back, he counts as a new monster.

"That means his effect is reset… So…"

The eye beam launched at Horus a second time, and nothing could stop it now. What happened next was horrible to watch. The Dragon erupted from flames from the inside, literally, screaming as it collapsed into a heap of hot ash.

Ray just stared aghast for a few seconds…

"Well what did you expect from an Archfiend?" asked Ferd.

Then Archfiend Empress pointed her fork at Ray, and he screamed louder than ever as the direct attack hit him. He realized now the real reason Ferd had used Falling Down on Wanghu – to get it out of the way.

**(F: 1,900) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 500)**

The Emperor started to lift its sword.

"STOP! Stop, _please!" _begged Ray. "I give up! I give up!"

Ferdinand stopped.

"One condition," he said. "When you see Red Shroud again, you're going to say that coming here was a dead end and you didn't find anything except a lot of bawdy dwarves getting drunk."

"Deal!" shouted Ray. "Anything you say!"

As the holograms disappeared, he panted and breathed heavily, taking a deep breath of relief as the giant vanished.

_Shroud will just assume those dumb bugbears who work for Rena were conned into buying false information, _he thought. _Maybe I'll be lucky and Rena will be punished._

"Don't forget, you gave up, so you lose, so our deal still stands," added Ferd.

"All right, all right!" shouted Ray. "It'll be in the usual place by Saturday…"

"Make sure," said Ferd. "For old time's sake…"

As Ray turned to leave, his old "friend" leaned against the wall.

"Oh, and Ray?" he said. "I didn't turn down that invitation because I couldn't play knoliast… It was because if I went to a card game that took a week to play, I'd have had to cancel a date I had the same week."

Ray grumbled angrily, and then stormed out. Then, to his shock when he entered the main barroom, Bert was in a drunken slumber at a table with his head on the spilled remains of a glass. Paul, even worse. He was slightly more sober, but that barmaid was holding him in a seductive embrace that didn't look affectionate at all.

"Let go of him!" shouted the mobster.

"Take it easy!" said Neela, with a girlish giggle.

She did indeed let go, and Paul stumbled a little, but managed to keep standing.

"I was just helping him up… Your two friends found a few things out about dwarven mead, the _hard _way."

"Paul!" cursed Ray.

"Uhm…" said the henchman. Then Ray slapped him hard in the face.

"Boss!" he replied.

"You sober enough to help me get Bert to the car?" asked Ray. "By the way, looks like _I'm _driving. Damn it…"

Paul nodded slowly, and the two lifted Bert up by the shoulders.

"Next time you two do what I say," growled Ray. "A guy like you can't count on me to drag your scraggy ass out when this sort of thing happens."

Neela watched them as they painfully hobbled out, while Ferdinand watched from the door.

"Oh boys?" she purred. "If you're ever in the neighborhood again, happy hour is at six. The potato chips and garlic knots are free."

Ray said something under his breath – the word "whore" was in it – and dragged his two henchmen out. Normally in this situation he'd have said it out loud, but he was pretty sure the dwarves in the place would _not _let it go unchallenged. But anyway, _that _was an offer he wouldn't accept.

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**LEVEL RESET (Spell Card)**

**Continuous Spell**

**Image: **The body of Horus the Black Flame Dragon LVL6 lying on a funeral Pyre surrounded by four Horus' Servants. The Level 4 version rises from the Pyre.

**Effect: **If a "LVL" monster you control is destroyed during your turn, you may banish this face-up card you control and discard 1 card from your hand to Special Summon a monster from your Graveyard with the same name and a lower "LVL" than the destroyed monster. This effect can be used during any Phase of the turn. After using this effect, you cannot Normal Summon or Special Summon any monsters with the same name with a higher "LVL" until your opponent's next End Phase.

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_**Jemorille: Most of Red Shroud's gang – and even Shroud, to a certain degree – had thought that Ferdinand's brain was as weak as his body was strong. Shroud is intelligent, but she can be a very poor judge of character at times. I should know; I myself was part of the notorious espionage expert's gang for years siphoning information from her for my own purposes, and it is with no fear or her that I make that revelation now. In fact, I almost **_**hope **_**she reads this; it might teach her that she's not as untouchable as she believes.**_

_**Ferdinand was a good deal smarter than he looked, and he figured that even though he didn't trust Ray to keep his word, he likely wouldn't go back on it now for a variety of reasons. First, if Ray told Shroud the truth, she'd likely kill him, not only because he had found a turncoat she'd been looking for and humiliated himself, but because it was very likely that Neela had "coerced" Bert and Paul to tell her something after convincing them to drink. (Given what she had said earlier.) By simply telling the succubus it was a dead end, she would do no more than sternly interrogate the bugbears who had gotten the info.**_

_**Even more so… Ferdinand knew that Ray likely wanted an excuse to get rid of the Maagardium Pass anyway.**_

_**For now, it seemed like the Shadowchasers were becoming involved in more and more cases that involved famous conspiracy theories… And some that involved rather obscure ones. As night started to fall, something **_**very **_**unusual had been brought to Jalal's attention, and he had to make two quick calls. One to Cleveland…**_

…_**the other to Backwater.**_

"_**Bring on the Night" is coming soon. **_

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**Shadowchaser Files: Eldritch Locations**

**Wolvercote Cemetery**

Most people, when they think of cemeteries, think of dark places full of restless dead and a feeling of coldness and despair. In truth, a proper cemetery is just the opposite. A place built on hallowed ground is supposed to be one that suggests peace and calmness, one where the dead can rest undisturbed.

And in some cases, like Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford, no less than four separate divine forces make certain that defilers and grave robbers dare not enter

The place is a working cemetery that seems an average one, the only unusual thing about it is that it is a single cemetery divided into separate areas for Jews, Muslims, and all manner of Christians. While many important people have been interred here since its opening in 1889, what makes it an Eldritch Location is the grave of a man whom, ironically, was ignorant of the existence of Shadowkind, despite being admired by many, J.R.R. Tolkien, author to _The Lord of the Rings._

While several races admire Tolkien, four do so more than most. Halflings most of all, given that they – whom he referred to as hobbits – were the heroes of his epic masterpiece. Elves and dwarves give him further praise, both races having posthumously granting him several titles usually reserved for their respective races.

Orcs – the ones who can read at least – are equally divided on their opinion. While many are irked by the fact that they are depicted as "dumb muscle" and "faceless goons" in his books, some orcs, with their unique culture, can't help but admire the "badass" way they are depicted in them.

Some other races admire Tolkien, mostly fey who saw the chapter in _The Two Towers _where Treebeard led the Ents in the assault on Isengard as proof that Tolkien was sympathetic to the environment (mostly after seeing Hugh Jackman's film version). But those first four are the important ones, because spiritual leaders of all four races have often come to his grave to pray and leave offerings, just as family members of a deceased would do, and the chief gods of all four races – Yondalla, Moradin, Corellon, and Gruumsh – have all bestowed blessings on the place, making the cemetery a sacred protected site _four times over._

For this reason, the whole cemetery has divine properties to ensure that the graves remain undisturbed. Creatures normally pained or harmed by hallowed or sanctified areas, like most undead beings, are hurt even more here. Actually creating undead is impossible on its grounds, and necromantic spells are weakened considerably.

In addition, divine spellcasters who attempt to defend the place find the intensity of their magic doubled. If said spellcaster worships one of the four Shadowkind deities who bestowed blessings here, it is tripled.

The only way to overcome or dispel the divine magic of hallowed ground is for the practitioner of dark magic making the attempt to have aid from a divine force that trumps – or at least equals – that of the one protecting the place. Because _all four _of the deities who have blessed Wolvercote Cemetery are greater powers, that does not seem likely to happen. Even if one of the four should refuse to interfere with the patron of some evil necromancer (Gruumsh would be the most likely candidate, _probably) _said necromancer would still have to overcome three others. For the time being, it seems that the place is one of the few places that can truly be considered a safe haven for the deceased.

Possibly best of all, there has never been a known instance of an orc picking a fight with an elf or dwarf if they happen to meet here. In fact, all four races often regard this place as a sort of "truce zone" should they have to discuss something without fear of an ambush by one side. Indeed, given the plot of Tolkien's books, that is _very _ironic.


	11. Bring on the Night

_Author's note: I have to admit, I can't take complete credit for writing this chapter. I have to give a LOT of credit for 7th Librarian for his help on it. Read on, and you'll understand why. _

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_**While we're on the subject of celestial bodies, one very common conspiracy theory involves the one closest to your world, the moon. **_

_**Now, some theories border on ridiculous, fueled by nothing but ignorance and refusal to accept reality. The well-known one about the Apollo moon landings being hoaxes are an example.**_

_**Many people believe that the United States was incapable of such technology, and that the moon landing was faked, filmed on a Hollywood soundstage to fool the Soviets into thinking the Americans had "won" the Space Race. (Some even go so far as to say that Stanley Kubrick was the one who directed it. **_

_**Probably the biggest evidence against this silly theory was the fact that the Russians never called them out on it. They were as capable of watching the landing as anyone else was (there **_**were **_**televisions in Russian at the time, contrary to what some people thought) and if there had been even a shadow of a doubt as to whether the Americans had landed on the moon, they would have thrown accusations in the U.S. government's faces and won an enormous propaganda victory. Why did they do nothing? Because they were smarter than the disbelievers.**_

_**In any event, there are photographs of the moon landing site that were taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Apollo crews left three retroreflector arrays on the Moon that can be observed with laser to this day**_**.**_** (What was that? "Unmanned probe"? Actually, those would have cost even **_**more **_**to send to the moon than a manned spacecraft in the 1960's.)**_

_**Not to mention the fact that pulling off such a hoax would have been much, much, MUCH harder than actually going to the moon. You see, over 400,000 government employees worked for NASA at the time, including astronauts, scientists, engineers, technicians, and skilled laborers. Not a single one **_**ever **_**came forward to confirm the accusations. Was it possible for an administration that was unable to cover up a simple burglary that caused the President to resign in disgrace to somehow keep 400,000 people quiet through bribery, blackmail, or some other methods? **_

_**Ironically, while conspiracy theorists claim that going to the moon was impossible, the truth of the matter is, maintaining such a lie would have taken a miracle. **_

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**CHAPTER TEN**

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**Bring on the Night**

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Philadelphia was called the Birthplace of the Constitution by most.

These days, however, smog covered the air, and while the sanitation department worked hard to scrub the grime off of the Liberty Bell and the Old City neighborhood's statue of Benjamin Franklin, the city had lost a lot of its lackluster in recent years. The citizens of the city – and Pennsylvania in general – were always wary, knowing of the grim situation Pittsburg had been in for many years.

For a long time, organized crime in the once-modernized city of Pittsburg had been controlled by three syndicates, Neo-Doma, Dark Obsidian, and the X-Twilight. Eventually, these groups became more powerful, controlling most major businesses and law enforcement. After a while, Pittsburg was turned into a lawless city ruled by crime.

But it got worse. Eventually, evil Shadowkind seized control of all three syndicates. Pittsburg became one of the few cities in the world where the Shadowchasers simply couldn't go; heavy bounties were put on the heads of all well-known members of Jalal's organization, and they faced death if they entered. Infiltration was all-but impossible most of the time; the crime bosses employed powerful diabolist wizards to make sure they knew the do-gooders where there almost before _they _did.

The only beacon of hope in Pittsburg was a group of freedom fighters who followed the tenants and ideals of the Great Treaty with no official membership in the Shadowchasers. The De-Factos, as they were called, were a poor substitute, lacking most of the magic and resources that the true Shadowchasers had, but while Jalal and other important legit members couldn't publicly condone their often violent actions, he did give them some limited… _compensation _from time to time.

They had done a remarkable job keeping the blight from spreading beyond Pittsburg. Whether they would ever cure it completely was impossible to say, and even in Pennsylvania's biggest city, despite the distance, the chill in the air gave a constant reminder.

It seemed especially chilly tonight. But not to an attractive young lady with long, platinum-blonde hair tied in a ponytail, wearing leather clothing with a bandoleer and munitions belt, along with a tattered black cloak.

Normally, Fayte Nyte was fond of the evening air, and for good reason, being a vampire. Still, there was something unusual in the air tonight in _this _city that was different than it was in Backwater… It wasn't the simply the fact that it was Philadelphia either, she had been here before. Something was _unusually _unusual now.

Then the Duel Disk she was wearing started to hum and vibrate.

_All right, all right… _she thought, looking over it. _How the hell does this work again…_

She tapped part of it, and a stern woman's voice came from it.

"Fayte, are you there?" she asked.

"Yeah, Rayearth, I'm here, like you told me to come here," replied Fayte, her accent clearly French. "It would have helped if I knew _why _I'm here, by _myself _for some reason. This is a big city, you know. I think I'm a few blocks from Fairmount Park if that helps."

"I'm as clueless as you are," replied the Incantifer, "but Jalal said he's sending someone else from out of state who'll help and that he knows more about this. I think he's a specialist. I think it has something to do with necromancy.

"Be careful… You're one Time Zone to the east, you know. Ever hear the story about the vampire who forgot about that?"

"Yeah, about a hundred times," said Fayte with a sigh, "and it gets more elaborate and embellished with each retelling. Anyway… Tell Garrows that if she stays out of my DVDs this time, I might bring her back something… Maybe a cheesesteak. I think…"

She broke off, looking around. The chilly air felt no different than before... at least, to a human. To a Shadowkind, a dark 'taste' had been carried by that last breeze. Something wicked walked this way...

"I'll have to get back to you," Fayte said, as she cut the call and reached reassuringly for her weapon under her cloak as the wind whipped another dark feeling around.

A heady, hollow moan echoed up the street with the next gust of wind. A few seconds later, it was chorused by more than a dozen more.

Fayte flicked her eyes back and forth, uncertain of the moaning's exact source. The wind and the buildings warped the sounds and years of experience had taught her that simply relying on your ears was asking for someone to ambush you.

Fortunately, zombies really don't do ambushes.

Lurching around the street corner in front of her was a zombie. Albeit, it was a loose use of the word. It wasn't a decaying, rotting, shambling corpse. It was a corpse that was to zombies as lions were to housecats. Its body bulged with oversized muscles fueled by oversized veins and oversized limbs to go with them. Each heavy step surged it forwards, like it was straining against chains holding it back and leaving it a hair's breadth from just snapping free.

Fayte scowled at the undead being, even as it was joined by a few more stragglers. It wasn't a standard zombie and had to have been built. Meaning someone was foul enough to desecrate the living and the dead like they were kits for parts to a construction set.

Promising herself that she'd track down the perpetrator at a later date and show them what playing with the undead really mean, she unsheathed _Tempest_ and took careful aim at the shambling monster's head.

The gun barked once, a ruby-tipped round slamming into the forehead and exploding with the force of a grenade while wreathing the zombie in flames. Now missing the upper third of its body, the corpse stumbled a few more half-steps and then toppled over as it oozed a dark blood and gore.

A second later, Fayte realized she had just snapped the metaphorical chains holding the zombies back.

The moans erupted into frenzied howls and the zombies fell upon their dead comrade like wild animals. There sounds of rending flesh and it being devoured…. Then the flames jumped from the dead zombie to all of the rest.

As one, still baying for blood, they rose and charged for her.

Fayte stared for a briefest moment, recognizing that despite Hollywood's theatrics, lighting zombies on fire was a very stupid idea. Especially when you were extremely vulnerable to fire yourself.

"_MERDE!" _

Spinning on her heel, she bolted down the street at speeds that would make an Olympic runner jealous. As fast as she was able, she popped the cartridge on _Tempest_ free and slid it back into the case on her belt. She fished another free and glanced at it to ensure that it was the sapphire-tipped rounds she wanted before slamming it home.

Whirling, she squeezed the trigger once, twice, three times so fast the crack of the shots was a single sound. The rounds smashed into the lead zombies and ice erupted from the impact points, coating them and causing them stumble and crash to the ground as their limbs lost movement. As before, several of the others paused to tear into the defeated ones and the rest crashed into them, a pile of flaming dead flesh that was hopelessly tangled.

Again, Fayte swapped cartridges, this time for diamond rounds. She only had the one case, but one was enough. Taking a moment to steady her stance, she gripped the edge of her cloak with one hand and took aim with the other at the center of the mass.

_Tempest_ roared and the round smashed through zombies before detonating while at the same time Fayte threw herself behind a parked car and wrapped her cloak around her body desperately.

Holy light erupted from the center of the zombie pile. Accompanied by the sheer concussive force, the zombies were reduced to hunks of flesh and bone as they were pounded apart. Bits of ash floated around as the holy magic destroyed whatever darkness was animating them.

Fayte carefully unwrapped herself from her cloak and stood, leaning on the car for support. She was no evil being, but that didn't mean she couldn't be hurt by light. As it was, she felt a very tired ache suffuse her body.

It didn't last as another chorus of blood-curdling howls erupted from the city around her. A second later, their owners poured out in groups of threes and fives from all over. Out of the alleys, through abandoned buildings and windows and even scrabbling down haphazardly from the roofs.

"_...Mordioux__…__"_ Fayte holstered _Tempest_ before producing her sword. It was a thin, light weapon mean to be used a fencing-style rapier. Against any opponent with actual mass, it would probably snap or break.

Except most weapons of this type weren't enchanted up to the hilt, literally and edged in a very fine line of diamond.

Light glimmered as she met the first group of zombies with a flurry of her blade. Hunks of flesh and gore rose into the air as she sliced them to ribbons. But they were still zombies and felt no pain as they lost chunks of their bodies, never stopped moving and clawing for her despite their limbs being unstrung.

Her blade sliced the claws off of one as it tried to smash her head with a dinner-plated sized hand. As the zombie swiped harmlessly through the air, she skewered its arm hard enough to pin it to its chest. Without skipping a beat, she smashed a palm into its face and spoke a word that hadn't been used by a human in over three hundred years. _"Voyais."_

The zombie's blood ignited, ripping through its veins like small explosions. As it exploded and its fellows forgot their bloodlust for her, Fayte twirled her blade in a short pattern and drove the tip into the ground. _"Veint!_"

Sparks surged from the impact point and swarmed over the zombies. They were dead and had no life in their bodies, no actual brain activity or thoughts. But they still had nerves and anything with nerves suffers when electricity is applied.

The zombies crowed in pain, their cries blunted and cracked as their bodies writhed outside of their control. Oversized muscles, stimulated beyond what they could even handle, snapped their limbs and bones as they trashed.

Fayte ignored them and was already moving to leap atop the car. They weren't defeated, but they were down for the count and it would take too long to kill them all.

It had also apparently taken too long to just eliminate them, as more zombies were already clawing their way up the car. Talons sliced through steel like it was paper, glass shattered and Fayte's sword was a blur of busy light as it sliced through everything she could reach.

A roar was her only warning as something heavy and hard smashed into her back, the vampire belatedly realizing that she had stupidly forgotten the back the zombies could climb the buildings. The impact hurled into the crowd of them below and she felt her sword lodge in one, ripping free of her grasp.

They descended on her, clawing and biting and shrugging off her blows that would have left living beings nursing broken limbs and damaged organs.

"_Detecting activation of Duel Disk battle system."_

Flesh flew as Fayte used the edge of her now-active duel disk to start ripping into things. When it lodged solidly into one zombie's head, she tore said head off. With a faint 'puff' the holo-projectors launched and while they would normally be rather harmless….at point blank range, they caved in the chest of two of her attackers.

Eventually, the Disk could take no more and it warped, the tray snapping off as a particularly heavy hit split a head like an overripe melon. But it had done its job- Fayte now had room to stand.

And worry. The zombies had backed off, encircling her and unlike before, they were not going out of their way to feast upon the fallen. They were wary now, like a pack of wolves circling a prey they had not expected to fight back.

"Who are you?" Fayte spat. "Are you going to hide behind your pets?"

She could see it now, a faint glimmer in the lifeless eyes of something inside their heads, controlling and guiding them. A puppeteer playing with marionettes.

In unison, they roared and lashed out at her in a random sequence. If she dodged one set of claws, she'd wind up in range of another and then the process would repeat until they got her, ripped her to shreds or she managed to escape...into the grasp of the other zombies waiting outside the circle.

Children tormenting an animal.

But they were not children and she was not an animal. She was a vampire. And Fayte Nyte was a predator.

As one of them took a lunging swipe at her, she seized its wrist and yanked it close. Ripping that arm back, she snapped its neck with the other and sank her fangs into its exposed neck.

It tasted dark and vile, so foul it nearly sickened her. But it was blood and that's what was important. Blood was the currency of life and Fayte still wanted hers.

She drained the zombie of everything it had and then some, dropping the husk as bits of red sparks began to arc of over her body. Black flooded her eyes and she roared, body creaking and groaning as her bones began to shift and change. Flesh bulged to the point it was going to tear and her hair erupted down her back, spiking and gaining an unnatural hardness.

The zombies milled and lashed out at the thing she was becoming, but their talons slid harmlessly over thick, armor-like fur and her growing bulk shoved them back.

A tire-sized paw with claws like short swords turned the upper body of a zombie into finely minced paste.

Fayte had become a bear. A bear that had had a tank for a parent. The size of a small car, with thick heavy fur that was armor and spiked protrusions all along her back. Fangs that could tear through metal with ease glistened with blood as she tore into the zombies in front of her.

They swarmed over her, on her, trying to tear her apart. But they may as well been trying to get blood from a stone for all the good it did them. She slaughtered her way through the ones in front of her, her weight and momentum crushing those she didn't destroy.

The horde thinned, then was gone as she tore free of their ranks and barreled down the street. Already, she could feel the transformation shedding and waning; blood from undead was barely worth the effort of draining but it had worked. For the moment.

She staggered stumbled and then lurched as her human form reasserted itself. Exhaustion coated her bones and she groaned.

And groaned again as she heard the moans and shuffling of more zombies.

And above that, the hum of a D-Wheel engine.

"Fayte!" a voice shouted. "Hang on!"

She turned to see the D-Wheel just come out of a sliding turn around the corner, its rider extending their hand as they roared up to her. With force that would have ripped a human's arm free, she snared their hand and swung herself onto the back of the bike.

And nearly fell off as the driver banked into a nearly 90-degree turn before speeding down a narrow alleyway. It was also a move that, at the speeds they were going, a human shouldn't have been able to do.

No human, which meant her rescuer was… "Luther!"

Indeed, the D-Wheeler was Frederick Luther, a well-known Shadowchaser of Cleveland and the only other vampire in the organization. He shifted gears, hit the gas and sped off, bowling aside more of the beasts as he did so.

"You say like Superman does when the first name is 'Lex'," he snarked back. "You're welcome, by the way."

"I'll thank you when we both leave here alive," she mused. She gripped his waist as he sped up, head near his shoulder so he could hear her better. "Did you bring anyone else?"

"No," told her, deftly zipping between parked cars. "We were supposed to, but then those zombies showed up. And they're not typical ones, either. Safer to just pull back until we knew more."

"That explains why I couldn't bring the Watchguard, then…" Fayte said with a sour tone in her voice. She had groused about not being able to bring her team along with her, but given how dangerous those zombies had become, it would have been a bloodbath on both sides. "So what exactly _are _they?"

"Bloodhulks," replied Luther. "Apparently, there's a way to 'improve' the standard spell used to animate corpses into zombies using powerful dark magic. All we know is, the corpse has to be freshly killed, and it requires blood from _three _other corpses that are the same size."

"_Four _bodies to make _one _zombie?" Fayte hissed softly at the thought of the dead and living who had been taken to create the nightmares. "And there were…"

"I know, dozens of them," replied Luther, "meaning likely hundreds of victims. But as I was saying, a bloodhulk is stronger than a standard zombie and harder to hurt, but if you _can _hurt it, you can destroy it faster."

"I noticed," she replied. "They can't take big hits well. Almost like whatever is animating them is explosive."

She grimaced as a thought occurred to her. "Or it was planned that way?"

"Powerful zombies that double as kamikaze fighters," he said with a nod. "Someone is either very desperate or stupid to work with those. And whoever made them is probably equally as smart. Or immoral."

Luther's curt tone easily conveyed his heavy dislike for the situation. A heavy silence hung over them for a long moment as they sped down the road.

"Mister Monster…" she hissed out the words. "It's him, isn't it?"

"It does fall into his style of creation," Luther said briskly, "but we have to worry about the source later. You and your wife's personal feelings on the matter aside, these creatures are far from the only dangerous and illegal technique whoever is behind this has been using, and since he's armed to the teeth with powerful necromantic spells, Jalal needed a couple of folks who are hard to hurt with that stuff."

"Yeah, well, you can have all the protection from necrotic magic in the world," said Fayte, "but that won't protect you from being pummeled by their fists."

"As you found out," he replied and Fayte could tell he was smirking slightly. "The hard way."

"If you like," she said, through grit teeth, "I can throw you into a pile of them and see how well you do. I'll even throw in a nick-of-time rescue."

"Okay, okay, calm down," he said in an urging tone. "I've managed to locate the man behind all of this. And with your little fight drawing most of the bloodhulks towards that location, whatever defenses he has should be hardly enough to stop us."

He swerved around a corner, and the obvious goal, the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent, was ahead of them. Luther pulled up to the building and came to a stop, and the two dismounted. Luther yanked off his helmet, shaking his long, shaggy black hair out as the two looked where they came.

"They're trying to follow us," he said, softly, "but like I said…"

"Then we need to do this quickly," she interrupted. "If he's desperate or stupid enough to do all this for something in here, then we've backed him into a corner now. There's no telling what he'll do."

She started for the front doors. "Or has already done."

Luther sighed, and nodded. "All business, I see…."

Indeed, the front doors where open, and they didn't appear to have been forced at all. Someone had broken into the closed museum as if he had owned the place, by simply opening the door and walking in.

"He clearly used magic to open the door _and _disable the security system," said Luther, "which means the bloodhulks are supposed to keep people away."

"Mmm-hmm," replied Fayte, looking around. "The negative energy they're giving off would send anyone else fleeing for his life, and probably has the whole city too afraid to even _look _outside. Question is… What in the world would a necromancer want in _this _place?"

Luther drew his sword from his hip as they edged inside.

"You got me," he said. "None of the exhibits in this museum date back earlier than the 17th Century, and it's pretty much limited to American historical artifacts, with an emphasis on Philadelphia itself. I'd say the stuff a necromancer would want in such a place is kind of limited. Wizards tend to prefer museums that hold much older stuff."

Fayte un-holstered _Tempest_. "Let's make sure it stays that way. If he likes playing with the dead so much, he can join them."

As she walked in, Luther sighed.

_Haven't changed at all, have you? _he thought.

It was rather easy to find where the perpetrator was. Vampires took pride at being the ones among Shadowkind who ruled the night. And when it was this close to midnight, in a darkened museum, it was the place and time where they would be right at home. As such, the two Shadowchasers moved at a fast sprint through the place with no more noise than a breeze, honing in on their quarry.

Eventually, they came to a lighted room, where the target was sighted. He had actually turned the power on here, apparently to get a better look at what he was after… Whatever that was.

The man hardly suggested a burglar, or a necromancer. He was a strange looking middle-aged man, with grey hair worn in a flared style.

But what really set him apart was his outfit. It seemed centuries out of date, much like Jalal's, only gaudier, with bright colors that clashed, with a cravat in place of a tie. Luther wasn't familiar with the style, having emigrated from the Homeworld of Shadow about a century ago, but Fayte had been here longer, and had remembered those styles during the Colonial Period among noblemen.

The room displayed the type of furniture used by American officers on the frontlines during the Revolution, which was mostly makeshift ones, given the limited budget of the colonial army. A painting of a military officer they didn't recognize was on the wall by the corner, and a desk was at the same corner.

The desk was what he seemed to be interested in. He was studying it closely, looking hard at the drawer. Luther guessed what his intentions were; something valuable was inside, something that he didn't want to risk breaking, and he was trying to think of a way to open it as gently as possible.

Fayte raised _Tempest_. "Step away from the desk and raise your hands. _Now."_

The man let out a tired sigh, and turned to them.

"Figures…" he said. "You can consider every variable you can think of, go over the plan a hundred times, and _still, _you can't prepare for everything, it seems…"

He regarded Fayte and her weapon with almost detached expression, like he wasn't really seeing them in rea life. "That weapon shoots gemstone-tipped ammunition, doesn't? I _have_ covered that variable, however. It cannot hurt me."

"Maybe not... and maybe so," was her reply. In the next two seconds, Fayte popped _Tempest's_ cartridge free, pulled out with quartz-tipped rounds and pulled the trigger twice.

The two rounds smashed into a glimmering shield of light that appeared a moment before impact and staggered him. But that was all they did, their electrical magic sparking uselessly on the shield. Fayte narrowed her eyes as she saw the actual bullets had simple bounced off his skin.

"Stoneskin…" she growled.

"And Advanced Elemental Protection," the man informed her. "I told you, you can't…"

He got no more out as Luther's fist landed full in his face.

The vampire back-handed the human before he could recover and then seized his throat in hand, slamming him against the desk he had been trying to get into. "You are under arrest."

"No, I think not," the man replied as his hand rose and he said something neither vampire could understand.

But they could feel it, a concussive force hurling them both off their feet and crashing against a pair of displays in heaps. Both scrambled back to their feet, glaring daggers at the would-be thief.

"That's something the man who sold me my army passed along my way, just in case they got out of hand," the human remarked with a smile. "Not sure what the spell is called, but I think 'Repulse Undead' works out well."

The two Shadowchasers glanced at each other and then at him.

"Well, now what? I seem to have the advantage now. You two are…"

_Tempest _barked and it was the man's turn to be thrown off his feet. The force threw him over the desk and he yelped in pain.

He hauled himself up back with a speed that his size would have suggested he was incapable of. "What was _that_!?"

"Emerald round," replied Fayte. "It doesn't do any elemental damage because it concentrates the kinetic force of a mid-level wind spell into itself."

She aimed the weapon between his eyes.

"Would you like to see what it does to your head?"

His pallor dropped a few shades into white. "You... wouldn't... you're Shadowchasers…"

"And you're a mass murderer," she said, her crimson eyes narrowing. "You bought those bloodhulks and that means you are responsible for the innocent people who died to create them. I'm sure that number is well into the triple digits. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."

"She has a point," Luther said as he folded his arms, obviously an indication that he wouldn't stop Fayte if she decided to pull the trigger. "Pretty sure that she's not going to get in trouble for killing you. Might even get an award, actually."

The man glanced between the two and then tensed, as if he was gathering his courage. "I'll give you an _excellent _reason," he spat out. "If I die, there will be _nothing _controlling those bloodhulks but mindless rage. They'll kill thousands, turning Philadelphia into a charnel house. Would you get an award for _that?"_

Silence reigned for a moment, then Luther stepped forwards while Fayte didn't lower her weapon. "Who are you?

"You may address me as the Earl Roland Drumer," the man said, putting obvious emphasis on the title.

"'Earl'?" asked Fayte and shook her head. "Americans... Couldn't think of your own titles, so you just borrowed them."

"I've heard of him," replied Luther, rolling his eyes. "He's a member of one of those fraternal organizations, you know, Freemason wannabes."

"You mean Funny Hat Clubs?" asked Fayte.

"Watch your tongue!" shouted Drumer. "We are a respected organization and I…"

"Yes, pretty much," Luther said, overriding Drumer's protests. "They claim to be secret clubs who do secret, mysterious things, but all they ever _really _do is drink beer and play cards, using it as an excuse to get away from their wives. And yes, more often than not, they wear pretty stupid hats and give themselves titles that mean nothing. Am I leaving anything out, Fayte?"

"I think most of them are 'no girls allowed'," she replied, "like a child's treehouse, really."

"Fine, fine, I won't deny it," replied Drumer. "Still, you may doubt my true intentions, but I'm only here to exonerate a man who has been wrongly accused of a terrible crime."

"More terrible than creating a zombie horde?" asked Luther.

"If you must know, I'm here seeking what everyone seeks, dear sir," he replied, "the truth. Specifically on General Benedict Arnold."

"_Benedict Arnold?" _shouted Luther.

"That's the first time in nearly two and a half centuries I've ever heard anyone refer to him by his military rank," said Fayte, her smirk turning back into a frown.

"Some still considered him one," replied Drumer.

"True, he was admired by King George and the Tories for his loyalty to the Crown, but not by the Whigs," added Fayte. "And do you know why? Because very few people trust a traitor, no matter where his loyalties lie."

"And that's the truth I seek, deal lady," he replied. "This country has believed a lie since the days of the Revolution. They believe that he was a traitor, so much that his very name has become synonymous with the word."

"What are you implying?" asked Luther. "That he was framed? That the plot to surrender West Point was a farce and he was a victim?"

"Oh, the plot was very real," replied Drumer, "but he was under direct orders from a superior to do so. I'm not sure exactly who… All I know is, it was some other officer in the Continental Army he was associated with. Possibly John Cadwalader, possibly Nathanael Greene… Maybe even Washington himself."

"You're mad…" replied Fayte. "You've killed _God _knows how many people to prove this?"

"Say what you will, milady," replied Drumer, "I've devoted my entire life to this, and I have it on good authority that there's a secret compartment in this desk with a document containing the order itself. Once I have them, General Arnold's name will be vindicated. The true culprit's name will be known and Arnold will finally get the recognition he deserves, as a hero of the Revolution!"

"Right…" replied Fayte, in a snarky tone. "And will you be remembered as a hero by the relatives of everyone who had to die for this posthumous exoneration?

"Look, Mr. Drumer, listen to me," replied Luther. "Maybe it is true to a _point _that Benedict Arnold was unfairly demonized and a victim of propaganda. He was a competent officer who was passed up for recognition and promotions that he rightful deserved, and it made him bitter. Maybe, just maybe, if more fairness had been shown, he would indeed have been recognized as a hero.

"But _even so,_ you can't change the facts of what happened. If he truly had been framed, you'd think evidence would have turned up sooner. This foolish belief that he was railroaded won't erase his crime from American history."

Drumer looked at him for a minute or two…

"So that's it?" he shouted. "You make _one_ valid point, and you expect me to throw away my life's work when I've already sacrificed everything to come this far? To _hell,_ with you, vampire, I will not falter when I'm this close to succeeding!"

He stopped. The look that Luther was giving him now was making his blood chill.

"You know _nothing_ of hell."

Drumer shivered a little after hearing that. Luther went on, his tone turning far sterner and angrier.

"You are mad and raving. Starkly so," he scowled, baring a dangerous-looking fang in the process. "Your rationale, your reasons, the why and how of you brought this about, I no longer care. You have slaughtered innocents for your petty, selfish desires, little man. You are going to pay for your crimes, Drumer. One way or another."

"You said you wanted us to go to hell…" Fayte's eyes seemed to burn red. "You're already on your way there, Drumer. And we're the doormen"

"No... no... I won't back down." Drumer spoke quickly, more to himself than to either of the Shadowchasers. "I won't, I won't, I won't… This is more important than myself or you or anyone else! The truth supersedes all! _ALL!" _

Then, with one swift stroke, he drew a wand from a sheath on his belt and pointed it at them.

"I'll see you both burn to ash in Prismatic Light!" he shouted, stepping towards them and brandishing the wand like it was a sword. "I'll vaporize everyone if I have! Do you understand what this will do?"

The two vampires backed up slowly. Yes… They did. Prismatic Light was a special type of evocation used as a weapon against undead…

"It can turn five of those bloodhulks to dust in one shot," he continued, "very useful if they were to turn on me… I've never tried it on anything stronger, but I'm more than willing… Like I said, this is my life's work, and two bloodsucking abominations aren't going to stop me!"

He grinned in glee as they both took a step back and Fayte's weapon lowered. Then his glee turned to panic as she lifted it again and aimed right behind him….at the desk.

"Wood burns quickly…" she said, as she cocked the weapon's hammer. "Paper even faster… Do you think you'll have time to save your little treasure and stop us?"

Then the true nature of Fayte's threat hit the false Earl. True fear appeared in his eyes…

"Don't…" he gasped. "You can't! You mustn't! History is in there! _Real history!_ The truth! _The Truth!_"

"Drop the wand or your life's work goes up in flames," she growled.

"Are you insane?" he gasped. "You could burn this whole museum to the ground… Some of these antiques date back to the Eighteenth Century…"

"I'm a Shadowchaser…" replied Fayte, "I value the lives of the people of the present far more than the relics of the dead. There will always be more dead."

"And as far as her being insane," added Luther, "I can vouch for her, she is…"

Drumer's hand quivered. This was a hard choice… He couldn't risk what was in there going up in flames… But… if he dropped it, he'd have two very angry vampires to deal with…

"I'll see the two of you in hell…" he snarled, pointing it. Fayte clicked the hammer down.

"Wait!" shouted Luther.

The two of them stopped. Luther started whispering something under his breath. Drumer couldn't hear it, but Fayte could, mostly. Her hearing was better than humans. It was four simple words.

"_He's calling them, Fayte," _he whispered.

She froze. Clearly, if that were true, Drumer had far more of an advantage. Especially if she made him angry. She did _not _want to fight them again…

"Earl," he said. "There's no need for violence… Just calm down, and we can talk about this like reasonable adults…"

Drumer didn't reply, but Luther could tell he was, indeed, calming down. Luther turned to Fayte, and her finger eased. He turned to Drumer again.

"You have a Duel Disk?" asked Luther.

"Yes…" he replied.

"Tell you what…" he said. "If you put down your wand, my partner might be willing to put down her weapon, and I might be willing to settle this like gentlemen…"

"_Fred…" _whispered Fayte to him. _"What will we do when…"_

Then she stopped for a minute, as if a thought had occurred to her and then nodded quickly.

Drumer gave them a sly look. He slowly set his wand on the floor, as Fayte did the same with _Tempest._

Then he rolled up his sleeve and flicked a switch on his wristband. A modern Duel Disk unfolded. Fayte backed up as Luther activated his own Disk.

_All I have to do is stall for a while, _he thought, as Fayte slowly backed away. _No matter what happens, I'll get what I want…_

He unfolded the D-Gazer, and the VR grid formed over the museum.

**(Luther: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Drumer: 8,000)**

As both players drew their opening hands, Fayte retreated to the back of the room and squatted in the corner.

_Let's hope Fred knows what he's doing, _thought Fayte. _I don't even know if this will work. _

She tapped the broken remains of her Duel Disk, the mechanism to activate the new communication device. There was a little static at first… But via some miracle, the system still seemed to work. Of course, seeing as half of the "system" was Jalal's card, maybe it only needed a _small _miracle.

Luther made the first draw, and played two cards, both of them set. One appeared on his Monster Zone, the other behind it.

"I'll play Heart of the Underdog," he said, trying to be polite, "and then it's your move, Earl."

Drumer made a slight smirk as the Continuous Spell appeared, and Luther knew what he was thinking.

_He thinks he knows what kind of deck I'm using, _he thought. _He's in for a surprise. _

"Indeed," replied Drumer, as he drew a card. "I use _my_ Continuous Spell Card, Call of the Mummy."

The card rose onto the field with a gloomy, eerie mist, and he took another card from his hand.

"Via its effect, I can Special Summon a Zombie from my hand… Thus…"

As he played the card, a huge, hulking _thing _loomed up behind him. It was an enormous pumpkin with one glaring eye, a large, toothy mouth on the front, and four long, vine-like tendrils radiating from each corner. It wore a small crown on the top. (2,000 DEF)

"_Pumpking?" _shouted Luther.

"Indeed…" replied Drumer. "An old card, yes, but it does have more surprises hidden within than you may know about… I summon Castle of Phantasms next."

He played the card, and an eerie, demonic castle floated over Pumpking that seemed strangely familiar. (1,000 ATK)

"That's…" said Luther.

"Yes, it looks like the infamous Castle of Dark Illusions," replied the Earl, "and while on the field, it may as well be, as one of its effects treats it as having the same name as that older card. Which means, due to Pumpking's effect, it gains a bonus of a hundred points for both attacking and defending every turn, starting _now."_

(2,100 ATK)

"Also, because I Normal Summoned it, the Castle itself moves to Defense Mode."

(2,000 DEF)

"I will also set one card," he said, as a set card appeared behind the Zombie and the Fiend. "And my turn ends…"

"Okay…" said Luther. "With Heart of the Underdog in play, if I draw a Normal Monster during my Draw Phase, I can draw again…"

He drew, and then flipped the card forward.

"Eh?" said Drumer.

"It qualifies…" said Luther, as he drew again. He turned that one forward too, and it qualified, so he drew a third time. He flipped it around again.

"Beast of Talwar, the Earl of Demise, and... Summoned Skull?" Drumer said, giving a tiny smirk. "Seems I'm not the only one with a taste for nostalgia."

"Frankly, 'Earl'," replied Luther, "the less you could say that attempts to put me in the same light as a mass murdering obsessive compulsive lunatic like you, the better."

"A valid point I suppose," replied Drumer, "but this is bigger than the lives of a few vagrants and mundane, this is about removing the stain from the legacy of a great man. I am no less driven to see justice carried out then you or your companion."

Luther looked at him coldly, clearly _not _impressed. The Earl let out a long sigh.

"If it makes you feel any better," he replied, dryly. "As I've stated before, I bought most of these bloodhulks. I didn't kill most of the unfortunate souls who were used to construct them. I may have researched a few of the alterations in the necrotic rituals and provided the actual magics, but most of the raw material was supplied by a… benefactor."

"So where _did _all the corpses come from?" shouted Luther.

"Don't know, don't particularly care," replied Drumer, shaking his head.

Luther simply closed his eyes and shook his head, then drew a fourth time. "This one isn't a monster, so I'll stop. However… I'll use Allure of Darkness to draw twice more. But once I do, I have to banish a Dark monster or I lose my whole hand."

He played the Spell, and made two draws. Then he took a card from his hand – The Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams – and tossed it upwards, where it disappeared.

"Now I'll use Polymerization, to fuse together Headless Knight and the Earl of Demise…"

The Fusion card appeared, and a decayed ghoul in a rotting nobleman's outfit holding a rapier, then a knight in decorated bronze armor with a sword and shield, with no head, both appeared, and turned into globs of darkness.

"I create the Duke of Demise!" he exclaimed.

There was a chilling moan, and a phantom in a rotted tunic, cape, and leggings, with a sunken, skeletal face, with skin stretched tight over it, phased out from the shadows behind Luther. It held a sword that emitted ghostly ectoplasm. (2,000 ATK)

"Impressive…" said Drumer.

"Oh, I'm not done," replied Luther. "I use the Ancient Rules Spell Card. I can use it to Special Summon a high-Level Normal Monster directly to the field, like my Beast of Talwar."

Then Spell Card appeared, and with diabolical laughter, a horned, muscular devil with green skin and wings that wrapped around him like a cloak leapt from it. He held two crescent-shaped scimitars. (2,400 ATK)

"Then, I'll sacrifice him," he continued, as the Fiend vanished. "For Summoned Skull!"

There was a clap of lightning, and the signature Fiend monster used by the King of Games appeared, electricity running over its armored exoskeleton. (2,500 ATK)

_Still using that deck you were "working on", huh, Fred? _thought Fayte. _I just hope he doesn't clobber you as fast as I did…_

"Summoned Skull, turn that overgrown gourd into a squash with Lightning Strike," ordered Luther, as the Skull lifted its arms.

"I use the Trap Card, Nightmare Mirror!" exclaimed Drumer.

The set card lifted and spun around, and a diabolical looking mirror with a horned rim appeared in front of Pumpking… With Luther's reflection in it…

Too late. The bolt of lightning crashed into the mirror, shattering the glass. Luther held his chest.

"By simply discarding one card," continued Drumer, "I've not only protected my monster, I've dealt you 1,000 points of damage."

"So I see…" groaned Luther. "I'll end my turn by setting two more cards…"

He took two more cards – the last two in his hand, actually – and fit them into his Spell Zone, where they appeared upside-down.

**(L: 7,000) - - - - - - - - - - (D: 8,000)**

"My move…" said Drumer, making a draw. "First off, Pumpking gains another small boost from my Castle…"

(2,200 DEF)

Then he showed Luther one of his cards. It was also Polymerization.

"I can do Fusions too," he said. "By combining a Zombie-Type monster with Castle of Dark Illusions, which my Castle is, due to its effect…"

Just like Luther's monsters did, the demonic castle and Zombie pumpkin turned into two orbs of darkness.

Then, a remarkably different – and incredibly creepy – Fusion Monster appeared from the dark shadows that the fusion portal had created. It looked like bundles of dead wood tied and lashed together with twine hastily and haphazardly with no concern for aesthetic at all, nor with any concern for proper material, most of the wood being rotted and decaying.

The end result was a nine-foot-tall, vaguely humanoid shape like a patchwork scarecrow (for lack of anything better to compare it to) with the limbs uneven and different sizes. Still, its disproportionately large hands had sharp claws on the ends, and what passed for a face conveyed a dark, malignant intelligence, even though it had no eyes or any other features. (2,700 ATK)

"So, what do you think of Azenwrath?" asked Drumer.

Luther fidgeted a little. Even Fayte, who was turning to watch every minute or so, was nervous about this… thing.

"Oh, come on," said Drumer. "He's loads of fun. Here, I'll show you…"

The spindly Zombie moved jerkily, and then slashed quickly with one claw at Summoned Skull, ripping the Fiend in half, literally. Fayte quickly turned back to her Duel Disk and spoke into it in a quiet whisper.

"What do you, you 'can't 'find it'?" She hissed into the device and then paused as the person on the other side responded. "Kenshin, I know it's hard for you to keep up, but it's big, shiny and _glows in the dark_. Just turn the attic lights off!"

**(L: 6,800) - - - - - - - - - - (D: 8,000)**

"It's your move, my good man," said Drumer with mock respect

Then he stopped. Standing next to Luther was a dark and ominous figure that did _not _look friendly. He reminded Drumer of Breaker the Magical Warrior, with the same pointed, face-obscuring hat and robes, but black rather than crimson, and instead of a sword, held a scepter with a golden snake entwined up the shaft, holding a blood-red ruby in its mouth.

"Uh… who's that?" he asked.

"Right when you declared your attack," replied Luther, "I activated a Continuous Trap Card called Infernal Inquisitor. We'll get to that in a minute. Before I draw, I'm activating a Spell Card."

The sinister man faded into the shadows as his set card lifted up, revealing De-Fusion. The Duke of Demise pulled apart into two globs of glowing ectoplasm, and both fell to floor in puddles. Then both puddles rose and grew, taking shape again into Earl of Demise (2,000 ATK) and Headless Knight. (1,450 ATK)

"Now I'll draw," said Luther, drawing. "And Heart of the Underdog is still in play, and because this card is Feral Imp, I can draw a second time…"

He drew, then stopped. He looked at his two monsters, then played one of his two cards, and the Feral Imp, the cute, gremlin-like Fiend with green fur that Yugi Mouto had been known to use early in his career. (1,300 ATK)

"Next, I'll use Silent Doom to summon Beast of Talwar back from the Graveyard."

The Spell Card appeared, as did a spectral hand emitting an eerie light. The Fiend rose from the ground under the hand, kneeling in Defense Mode and covering itself with its wings. (2,150 DEF)

"Now I know what you've been thinking the whole time… Most of the monsters I've been using are crap, and most duelists these days would agree with you. But if you look hard enough, you can find a use for anything.

"You see, the monster I'm about to summon _requires _two Normal Fiends…"

"What?" shouted Drumer, as the familiar vortex started opening.

"So with the Overlay Network complete," said Luther, as Headless Knight and Feral Imp vanished, "I can Xyz Summon the Black Steel Guardian."

The monster landed, or rather _fell _next to Luther with a crash, shaking the entire room. It was a huge, bulky Fiend made of metal with oversized hands and feet on all fours. A dangerous looking spiked harness surrounded its shoulders, and it had bladed horns.

"That's Metal Guardian…" replied Drumer.

"Trust me, this upgraded version is _much _better," replied Luther. "First of all, as you can see, it's defending, and its Defense Score when I summon it becomes the combined total of those two monsters I used to do so."

(3,100 DEF)

"Plus, so long as he has at least one Overlay Unit, you can't attack any Fiend other than him. But if you think I'm using him to protect my Earl, guess again. That's where my Inquisitor comes in.

"It works like this. Every time you destroy one of my Fiends, like you did last turn, he gains an Authoritarian Counter."

The Inquisitor lifted his staff, and sickly purple motes surrounded Beast of Talwar.

"Each time I expend one, I can either upgrade or downgrade the Level of a Normal Fiend by one. So I'll downgrade Beast of Talwar from 6 to 5."

"You're going to make a second Xyz Summon!" shouted Drumer.

"Exactly," replied Luther, as the Overlay Network started to churn again. "You know… It's ironic you used that castle…"

The Beast and the Earl disappeared, and more lightning flashed. Then a new, hideous-looking Fiend appeared, one with no eyes, horrid, and inch-long teeth – and that was just its face. Its torso was hulking, muscular, and solid, with jet-black skin and bony spurs jutting from the shoulder blades and elbows. It wore gauntlets and leggings made of grey fur, and both had foot-long claws. (2,200 ATK)

"My Savage Emperor of Yamimakai may not be a match for Azenwrath right now," continued Luther, "but my monsters can also work as a team. You see, while my Guardian's Defense Score is impressive, you can't overlook its Attack Score of 1,300 either, because by getting rid of an Overlay unit…"

A dark sphere flew out of Black Steel Guardian, and splashed into Savage Emperor of Yamimakai's chest.

"I can increase the Attack Score of any other monster on the field by _its _Attack Score, meaning Emperor gains 1,300 points."

Savage Emperor's score rose to 3,500 as electricity started to form in its hands…

"Destroy Azenwrath with Demon Bolt Wave!" ordered Luther.

The powerful flash of lightning coursed across the room, hitting the horrid Zombie. Both Luther and Fayte were relieved to see it burst into inert, burning twigs.

**(L: 6,800) - - - - - - - - - - (D: 7,100)**

But as the flames died down, Drumer started to chuckle. Pumpking appeared behind him, and vanished into dark vapor.

"Indeed, you've found a use for an outdated card," he said, "but then, so have I. You see, Azenwrath's effect now activates. By banishing the Pumpking, I can Special Summon _two _other Zombies from my deck now."

"WHAT?" shouted Luther.

"Of course, they have to be the same name," continued Drumer, "and each has to be no more than half of Pumpking's Level. Rounded down, of course. So I summon two copies of Pumprincess, Princess of Ghosts!"

As hard as it was to believe that a Zombie could actually be _cute, _the two monsters that popped up where the hideous Fusion Monster had been qualified. Each one was a pint-sized feminine version of Pumpking, with a fancier crown and _ribbons _behind it. (900 ATK x2)

"Uh…" said Fayte. She stood up slowly.

"But that's not all," continued Drumer. "Since I happen to have another Pumprincess in my Graveyard, the one I discarded to use Nightmare Mirror, _that _one is summoned too."

Fayte flinched a little as a third one appeared with the others. (900 ATK) She had actually heard about this card.

"Any time now…" she muttered into her Duel Disk, tapping it.

"Ugh, I end my turn…" muttered Luther. "But that boost to my Fiend's Attack Score won't wear off until the end of _your _turn…"

"Which means, my three Zombies are now destroyed," said Drumer.

The three Pumprincess all shattered into foul-smelling, green dust.

"So what's the point?" asked Luther. "You…"

Then he stopped. The green dust started to coagulate and solidify, and the three Pumprincess reappeared.

"You said they were destroyed…" he continued.

"They _were," _replied Drumer. "But that means now they come back in my Spell Zone, and act as Continuous Spells."

"Like Crystal Beasts?" asked Luther.

"In a way, Pumprincess is a little better than a Crystal Beast," replied Drumer.

Luther looked at him strangely, and Drumer nodded. It wasn't the first time someone had a hard time believing that.

"Crystal Beasts can't do anything on their own in a Spell Zone without other cards to help them," replied Drumer. "Pumprincess, however…"

He drew a card.

"…this is where her _true _effect comes into play. You see, every Standby Phase, each of them gains a Pumpkin Counter, and each Pumpkin Counter reduces _both _Scores of your monsters by a hundred points."

Luther turned, and vines sprung from the ground around Black Metal Guardian and Savage Emperor of Yamimakai. The two Fiends snarled a little. (Savage Emperor of Yamimakai: 3,200 ATK, Black Metal Guardian: 2,800 DEF)

"Now I'll summon Pumpking the Dark Agent!" he exclaimed.

He threw his card on his Disk, and a beanpole-thin man in a sharp, white suit appeared out of the ether, a jack-o-lantern for a head. Fire surrounded his hands. (1,200 ATK)

"Your monsters may lose Attack Points from those Pumpkin Counters," he chortled. "_This _guy, however? He gains whatever amount most monsters lose."

(1,500 ATK)

Drumer fit his last card into his final space in his Spell Zone, causing it to appear in a set position.

"Your monster is still far too strong, and I can't attack it anyway due to your Guardian, but by the time it's my turn again, my three Pumprincess will have two more Pumpkin Counters apiece, and I have the time. Until then, it's your move, which means your Xyz Monster loses the boon it gained previously."

(1,900 ATK)

Fayte looked at them and scowled angrily, before turning and stalking out of the room with a furious flip of her cloak.

Drumer turned. He saw _Tempest _still lying where she left it… And his own wand where _he _left it.

"Guess your girlfriend couldn't take the pressure…" he said, slowly.

"She's not my girlfriend, fellah…" said Luther. He lifted his hand to draw a card...

Drumer quickly tried to make a dive for the wand. As his hand reached for it, he screamed as a stiletto blade stabbed into the floor between his middle finger and ring finger.

He shivered as he looked up, and saw Luther palming another one, with his trench coat open, revealing about six others.

"You weren't thinking of weaseling out on our deal, were you, Earl?" he asked.

"Heh…" stammered Drumer. He slowly stood up. "You, you missed on purpose, right?"

Luther looked at him coldly.

"It's my move, I believe…" he said, not answering the question.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile, Fayte, who had switched from a walk to a sprint after leaving that room, was in the entrance hall of the large museum.

Those things were getting closer… Drumer was obviously stalling.

"What is taking so long?" she snapped. "The attic isn't _that_ big!"

"Fayte, sweetie, you need to calm down," came another voice from it, a far more soothing and sultry one. "You snapping at us it isn't helping.

"Sorry… Tsuki…" replied Fayte.

"We're looking for it, Fayte," came the reply, "but the attic here is pretty cluttered. We've got enough junk here to have a garage sale… Wouldn't be a bad idea if so much of it wasn't dangerous…"

"We'll think of what to do with it all when I get back," replied Fayte, "if I live that long…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Luther drew and turned it forward, revealing it to be his second Summoned Skull. He drew again, then he stopped.

"Don't forget," said Drumer, "as each Pumprincess gains Counters, my Dark Agent grows stronger as your monsters grow weaker."

The three Zombie princesses grinned, and more vines appeared, tightening around his two monsters. (Savage Emperor of Yamimakai: 1,300 ATK, Black Metal Guardian: 2,500 DEF) Dark Agent, however, burned with a blazing halo of fire. (1,800 ATK)

"Seems your Emperor is already outmatched," said Drumer.

"Is he now?" asked Luther. "My Black Steel Guardian may only have 700 Attack Points because of those three Zombies, but if I use its effect a second time…"

He discarded Headless Knight's card, and Savage Emperor rose to 2,000 Attack Points.

"It's just enough. "Destroy his Dark Agent!"

There was another bolt of lightning, and pumpkin pulp splattered all over the room as the Zombie burst.

**(L: 6,800) - - - - - - - - - - (D: 6,900)**

"Meh…" muttered Drumer.

Luther scowled back at him and took his other card, setting it next to his other one. (Drumer was wondering what the other one was – it had been there for a while – and was considering how important it was.)

"Your move…" said Luther.

"You know what that means," replied Drumer, as he drew. "Each princess now has _three _Pumpkin Counters!"

(Savage Emperor of Yamimakai: 1,100 ATK, Black Metal Guardian: 2,200 DEF)

Then he chuckled a little as he looked at what he drew.

"So now it's time to bring out something special… Thanks to Call of the Mummy, I can Special Summon the Queen Pumpking!"

In a dark, shadowy fog, a very unlikely Zombie appeared. She didn't resemble Pumpking – or any Zombie, really, for that matter – at all. A young-looking, attractive woman with a black dress much like that worn by Morticia Addams – complete with a _very _low-cut V-neck that left little to the imagination. Her long sleeves and the bottom of her dress were torn and ragged. She had a witch's hat on top of burnt-red hair tied in pigtails, and a sweet smile. She also carried a glowing lantern shaped like a jack-o-lantern with a lit flame inside. (2,200 ATK)

"So long as I have at least one other Pumpking or Pumprincess on the field, she can destroy one Spell or Trap Card per turn. So I'll…"

The Queen looked at Luther, then lifted the lantern. She stopped and turned towards Drumer. He looked at the set card.

"Ah, the Heart of the Underdog card!" he shouted.

Flames spouted from the lantern, burning the Spell to a crisp. Then Drumer's set card, Call of the Haunted lifted up, and a coffin made of black wood appeared next to the Queen. It opened, and Pumpking the Dark Agent crawled out.

(2,400 ATK)

"He's even stronger now…" said Drumer, "and your monsters are weaker, meaning I can turn them to paste."

Queen Pumpking's smile changed, and was clearly evil now; her eyes glowed, and a burning, dark hex flashed from her hands, blowing Black Steel Guardian to bits.

Then the Dark Agent held its hand out, and a smaller, fiery pumpkin appeared in its palm. He threw it, hitting and roasting Savage Emperor of Yamimakai.

**(L: 5,500) - - - - - - - - - - (D: 6,900)**

But to Drumer's shock, both the Earl of Demise and Beast of Talwar were standing there now.

"Notice I never used that guy's effect or told you what it was?" asked Luther. "Because I only used Normal Monsters to summon it, and both were still being used as Overlay Units, both are now summoned to the field."

"That doesn't make them any less vulnerable to Pumprincess' effects," replied Drumer.

(Earl of Demise: 1,100 ATK, Beast of Talwar: 1,500 ATK)

_I hate to say this, but he's right, _thought Luther. _Whatever Fayte is planning better be dyno-supreme…_

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Speaking of which…

"OUCH!" shouted Fayte.

Something conked her on the head. As she rubbed it, she picked up the long scepter that had fallen, one with gold plating and eagle's wings on the tip, along with a scroll.

As she started to run to the front door, Rayearth's voice spoke from the Duel Disk.

"Fayte, we found it. But you're going to need to hurry."

"Because I wasn't hurrying before?" replied Fayte curtly.

"You need to hurry," replied Rayearth ignoring the vampire's tone, "because the Mundanes are getting involved and fast. If this escalates too much, it'll blow the masquerade. Not to mention possibly reduce Philadelphia to an even worse condition than Pittsburg."

Fayte looked out the door, and saw the first of the bloodhulks lumbering towards the museum about four blocks away. Indeed, she saw some flashing lights and heard some sirens in the distance.

"I take it the boys in blue tried a stop them?" she asked.

"A few of them did," replied Rayearth. "Suffice to say that the charges against whoever is behind this have increased _astronomically _in the past half hour. Fortunately, those bloodhulks seem dead set at getting to the museum.

"Now listen, Fayte that scroll has the instructions, and you have to time it right. What might happen to the two of you if the scepter is set off too _early _might be worse than if it's set off too late."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence," replied Fayte.

She unrolled the scroll, and started to recite the spell in the old Latin text.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Luther made a draw. Witty Phantom.

He looked at his two Fiends, and the evil vines gripped them, causing their Attack Scores to sink to only 900 and 1,300 respectively. The two monsters he hadn't summoned yet wouldn't do much better…

Then that set card he had saved from the first turn listed up.

"I use Common Charity!" he shouted. "Again, I'll draw twice…"

He did so, and he perked up a bit.

"Then I'll banish one of my Normal Monsters here…"

Witty Phantom's card shattered. Then he played one of the two new cards.

"I use Enemy Controller!" he shouted.

A large video game control pad appeared in mid-air as Earl of Demise vanished.

"By using this Spell Card, I can sacrifice one monster, and then enter the code up, up, down, down, left, right…"

He stopped, then shrugged.

"Aww, hell with it, I'm taking your Dark Agent."

The game pad vanished, and then the pumpkin-headed Zombie was pulled over to his side of the field.

"Don't see what good he'll do you," replied Drumer. "Not only does he lose his bonus from Pumprincess, but now he takes the _penalty."_

(400 ATK)

"In another second, it's going to be the _only _monster on this end taking the penalty," replied Luther, "because the next card I'm playing is Non Spellcasting Area."

As the Continuous Spell Card appeared, Beast of Talwar stood up straight, slashing with its two swords. The vines binding it fell to the floor, and it Attack Score shooting back up to 2,400.

"HOW?" shouted Drumer.

"Non Spellcasting Area renders Normal Monsters immune to Spell Cards," replied Luther. "That means they can't be blown up by a Lightning Vortex, won't be sucked into a Dark Hole, can't be caged by Swords of Revealing Light… You get the idea. And because those three Zombies now count as Continuous Spells…"

"That means…" stammered Drumer.

"They're worthless now," added Luther. "I sacrifice your Dark Agent to summon my other Summoned Skull…"

As the Skull Demon appeared, the phony Earl had half a mind to turn and make a run for and come back when his bloodhulks were closer. And he had _more _than half a mind to do so when Luther's other set card – which was Birthright – lifted up, and the _first _Summoned Skull appeared too. (2,500 x2)

"First for your Queen," said Luther. "Attack with Severing Talwar Scimitar!"

The perky female Zombie shrieked as the demonic swordsman closed in on her. With a powerful swipe, his left sword dissected her at the waist. The pieces both turned to flame and vanished in sparks like a Roman candle.

"Attack directly!" ordered Luther. "Double Lightning Strike!"

The assault was one that Roland Drumer would not soon forget. The first bolt of lightning knocked him off his feet, and the second one hit him before he even came halfway to hitting the ground. He fell with a solid crash.

"Ow…" he groaned.

"Wow, you're tougher than you look," replied Luther. "I see that steeling yourself to slaughter innocents have given you something of a backbone…"

**(L: 5,500) - - - - - - - - - - (D: 1,700)**

Drumer slowly got up, looking at Luther with pure hate.

"I'm not going to give up, you hear me!" he shouted. "I've been working my whole life to find that evidence, and I'm not the type who backs down!"

"Interesting…" said Luther. "You seem to be a lot more dedicated to your cause than the man you worship then."

"What?" asked Drumer.

"Suppose, just suppose, you're right," replied Luther. "Suppose there is, indeed, evidence in there that would have cleared Benedict Arnold of what he is so hated and reviled for.

"If so, he never retrieved that evidence himself for some reason to attempt to clear his name. He fled to Britain after the plot was discovered, and remained an enemy of the liberated America for the rest of his life.

"It seems then, that you have something he lacked. You're so dedicated to clearing his name that you'll do anything, commit a horrible crime and risk the worst of punishments. But the actual man whom you admire, who you claim was falsely accused? Who you claim had evidence stored that would clear his name?

"He preferred to flee. Like a coward."

"_Quiet, _simpleton!" shouted Drumer. He snatched the top card from his deck. "This is turning into a lecture and I have no time for such shenanigans!

"Especially since I just drew Pumpking's Knight! And I'm allowed to summon it to the field by sending my three Pumprincess monsters in my Spell Zone to the Graveyard!"

The three cute pumpkin Zombies exploded into flaming pumpkin pieces, and a monster even bigger than Azenwrath with the smell of burning pine slowly rose over the Earl's side. It certainly didn't suggest a knight; more like a large wicker man with a fire burning in its chest, the head of a jack-o-lantern, and a long wooded staff topped with several eerie lanterns. (2,700 ATK)

"Now we get to the good part," he said. "Because I summoned him that way, you send three cards from your deck to the Graveyard."

Luther hesitated.

"And…?" he asked.

"Depends on how many of them are monsters," replied Drumer. "So let's see…"

Luther slipped the top three cards off his deck – Zoa, Opticlops, and Symbol of Duty.

"Looks like my luck is about to change!" laughed Drumer, as the vampire discarded the three cards. "Now I can pair up each discarded monster with a monster on the field, and then either add the discarded monster's Attack Score to the Attack Score of the monster it's paired with, or subtract.

"So… I'll _add _Opticlops' 1,800 points to _my _monster, and then _subtract _Zoa's 2,600 from one of your Summoned Skulls!"

One lantern on the Knight's staff turned red, the other blue, and one of the Skulls fell to a Score of zero, while Pumpking's Knight rose up to 4,500.

"You may say my title is meaningless," he laughed, as the Knight pointed the staff, "but I guess what it all comes down to is who's pointing the burning flames of death at a target that's utterly powerless!"

It wasn't one fireball that launched at the Summoned Skull with the reduced score, but a volley of a dozen with a ghostly scream. The Fiend was torn to parts as Luther covered his head with both arms…

**(L: 1,000) - - - - - - - - - - (D: 1,700)**

Flames slowly started to die down as Drumer watched. Luther's face and clothing were covered with soot and ash.

"I end my turn," said Drumer, "but you're next, blood-drinker, and don't think I'm letting your girlfriend out of this…"

Luther made a guttural growl as he went to draw.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Fayte tried hard to keep calm and hold back panic. The magic was almost ready, but the bloodhulks were getting very close and the window of time she had to work with was shrinking.

Finally, she spoke the last words, and a brief shimmer glazed over the entire surface of the scepter.

She glanced at her watch quickly, then held the scepter in her right hand over her head, bottom end forward, and hurled it like a javelin. As she'd hoped, it embedded itself point-first in the street, twenty-four feet away.

Not exactly a record-breaking throw, but it would do. She turned around, rushed back into the museum and slammed the doors closed, then grabbed two patrician poles and propped them through the door handles to barricade them.

She knew it wouldn't delay a horde of even regular zombies for longer than a couple of minutes, but now, a couple of minutes might count. She rushed back to the room where the duel was happening.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_This just might work… _thought Luther, as he played the card he drew.

"As of right now," he said, "there are _exactly _seven Dark monsters in my Graveyard. So I'll play The Beginning of the End, and banish five of them to draw three times."

Five cards – the Earl of Demise, Feral Imp, Opticlops, Savage Emperor of Yamimakai, and Black Steel Guardian – appeared behind him, and turned to dust. He made three draws.

"Not bad…" he said. "There are three Normal Monsters remaining in my Graveyard, so I'll banish two more of them to summon _my _demonic knight… Knight of the Red Lotus!"

An even darker shadow appeared behind Luther, and the monster that leapt out of it, while no Fiend, was more frightening than any of his others. A tall, dark man in black plate armor with an odd design, a veil covering his mouth and flaming, red hair, he held a zanbatō with curved spikes along the blade. (2,100 ATK)

"Wait just one minute!" shouted Drumer. "That's the first time I've ever heard seven minus five equal three…"

"Not all his Fiends are Dark, genius," said Fayte's voice, behind him, causing him to look over his shoulder.

"Exactly," replied Luther. "Headless Knight is Earth, which means along with Summoned Skull and Zoa, I had exactly enough to play the Spell Card and summon this monster. And it's just going to get worse. Remember my Infernal Inquisitor?"

The shady, hooded figure stepped out from the shadows again, lifting his staff.

"Since the last time I used that card, three Fiends were destroyed, so I have three more counters, so I'll use two, putting one on Beast of Talwar, and one on my other Summoned Skull."

The Overlay Network appeared again and... Music started to play. Arabian music?

"Time to summon somebody special," continued Luther, as the two demons vanished. "I Overlay my two Fiends again to summon a stronger Xyz… The lovely and powerful Lady Dervish!"

Two lovely, female eyes appeared, and as the music played louder, a belly dancer with a halter, pantaloons, bangles on her wrists and bare feet, a veil, and cascading hair past her waist danced onto the field. She danced for a second or two… Then shyly looked at Drumer in mid-step…

Then she threw her arms outward, and twin curved swords appeared in them. (2,400 ATK)

"That's Performance of Sword!" shouted Drumer.

"That was her old stage name," replied Fayte with a slight laugh. "She's gotten better at the blade dancing act since then."

"True, she's no longer some trade-bait Ritual Monster," replied Luther. "By using her effect, I can detach an Overlay Unit and sacrifice a Normal Monster to destroy any card on the field I want."

"Heh, heh, heh…" said Drumer. "I don't know how to tell you this, but…"

"Think I don't have one?" interrupted Luther. "That's where Knight of the Red Lotus comes in. He can Special Summon a low-Level Normal Monster from my Graveyard once per turn."

The Knight stamped his weapon on the floor, and Headless Knight appeared again. (1,450 ATK)

Drumer looked dumbfounded, but Luther went on. Lady Dervish lifted her blades as the Fiend disappeared, and with a diagonal slash, Pumpking's Knight quivered… Then it fell apart, falling into a pile of smoldering twigs and ash.

"Of course, that means only she can attack this turn," said Luther.

"Strike me down if you want, you foul abomination," cursed Drumer, "but my troops will be here in minutes, and…"

"Shut… up…" said Luther. "Attack directly! Battledance!"

Lady Dervish capered, spun, and leapt as she made her move, finally striking the Earl down and knocking him on his side, causing him to slide ten feet.

**(L: 1,000) - - - - - - - - - - (D: 0)**

As the VR system started to disappear, Fayte grabbed Luther's wrist and started to pull him towards one of the room's exits.

"What?" he shouted. "Where are we…"

"Shut up and follow me!" she yelled. He didn't resist as she pulled him past several exhibit rooms, past a door that said "Employees Only", and then past a store room. But he _did _object when he saw she was leading them to a basement door.

"Fayte, are you out of your mind?" he screamed.

"I said, _shut up!" _she ordered.

She threw the door open, then threw him down the stairs. Then she looked around, and saw a large strongbox. It was about half-again the size of the coffin she 'slept' in; it would be just big enough, barely.

"Fayte, you're crazy," he stammered, "a basement is the very _last _place you should hide when a zombie horde is after you."

She didn't answer right away, but forced the box open, then dumped the content out, which seemed to be little more than a collection of jars.

"When they find us, we'll be cornered!" he shouted.

"We only have to hide for," said Fayte. She checked her watch. "One minute and fifty-two seconds."

"What, how can you be so… URK!" started Luther before he was cut off as she grabbed him by the collar.

"Trust me!" she shouted.

Then she threw him inside the strongbox, leapt inside it herself, and slammed the lid closed with them inside tight.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Drumer, meanwhile, had recovered his wand, and was clutching the side of his head as he walked to the entrance. He had considered picking up Fayte's weapon, but didn't want to take the chance it would misfire on him. He had more strongly considered trying to magically open the desk again, but he knew those two were still in the building, and he wanted his control over the bloodhulks to be absolute when he told them to hunt them down.

It was easy enough for him to clear the makeshift barricade Fayte had used to prop the front door shut. The first of the bloodhulks were shambling up the front steps.

Then he saw the scepter. The shimmer had turned to a shine… A powerful shine…

"Oh… shit…" he said.

He made a rush for it, but he barely made it half way before the spell was unleashed, which had been equipped with a magical timer.

The Spell? Sunray. A _very _powerful Epic divine spell used by the most powerful worshipers of Pelor a deity worshipped by many Shadowkind as the god of the sun.

A spell that could create radiance even greater than the sun if used properly, creatures of the night shivered in terror at the mere mention of it. During the Great War where Fayte and Luther's people were nearly eradicated, this spell was believed to have slain one of the Great Generals and his entire army. To the walking dead, it meant doom.

Of course, not just anyone could cast this spell, but the staff was a conduit that "stored" the already-cast spell, making anyone able to unleash it who could read the command word, but only once.

Rayearth had confiscated it years ago to make sure no-one ever used it against Fayte or any vampire they were allied with, and Fayte's own assurance to Dracula that she could be trusted was the only reason the Lord of Vampires trusted them with it. Still, Fayte didn't like keeping it around…

As she clung to Luther, she could tell it had gone off, reducing the bloodhulk army to dust. She knew it would take a _lot _of explaining and some boldfaced lies by core command for everyone to accept a reason why the night had turned to day for a brief minute… But she was glad the thing was gone, and that it hadn't gone to waste

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Hours later, it was two in the morning.

Several police officers were now in the cordoned-off museum, along with a couple of Luther's teammates from the Cleveland Shadowchasers, and Fayte was speaking to the museum's curator. Luther was talking via the new communication system to someone in the hospital ward at Headquarters in Britain.

He sighed and hung up. "I'm glad you're on our side, Fayte," he said, "you _are _crazy."

"How is he?" she asked, clearly not as concerned as the question sounded.

"He's gonna have quite a sunburn for a while, but he'll be fine," replied Luther.

"More than he deserves," Fayte replied her fist clenched slightly. "His own stupid ambition cost him to spend lives that were worth far more than any truth he thought he had could be."

Luther slowly nodded. What more could be said?

"So you say he said there were documents belonging to Benedict Arnold in this desk?" asked the curator.

Fayte nodded as the man looked at the desk while another man using fine tools to carefully disable the hinge on the drawer.

"Almost got it…" said the other man. Fayte's expression was unreadable.

He slowly pushed it open. The curator looked inside.

"Hmm…" he said. "Wait… There is a false bottom here…"

Fayte's expression morphed into a hard scowl and this time, Luther saw it. The curator's helper lifted the false bottom…

"Interesting…" said the curator.

His assistant took a large set of tongs and lifted something out. But it wasn't what the two vampires expected. Rather than the set of documents Drumer had been looking for, it was a leather-bound book, a journal of some sort.

"Hmm, a logbook of some sort…" said the curator.

The assistant turned the journal around with the tongs. It had a signature on the cover.

"Yes, that's Benedict Arnold's signature all right…" he continued. "It's tempting to read this now, yes, but we'll have to study it like anything else."

The assistant lowered it into a plastic bag, as Fayte sighed and turned around.

"Fayte, we'd best get a move on," replied Luther. "Sun will be up soon. And I don't think your wife will appreciate the fact you look like a nightmare, broke the sword she got you and the Duel Disk, _and_ drank zombie blood _and_…"

"I'll just tell Maria to make one of those Mexican omelets for her tomorrow morning," Fayte told him. "They always do the trick when she's angry, and after tonight, I probably won't be awake until _at least _four in the afternoon."

"Fayte…" interrupted Luther, as she started to stride for the exit.

She turned to him.

"Drumer was just a crackpot," he said. "He was a necromancer using foul magic that may have been invented by the bastard who kept your lover as a slave, and six policemen are dead tonight because of him. Do you _really _believe him?

"This country is _not _living under some lie about Benedict Arnold's true motives. You aren't considering taking that guy's word, are you?"

Fayte stopped for a minute. She didn't answer.

"Okay," he asked. "What if he was actually right and there were some documents in there with the potential to change history?"

"Burn them," Fayte said without hesitation. "No madman's dream will ever stop being such when he pays for it in blood. I will make sure of it."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

With one thing and another, morning did indeed come. And at Shadowchaser Headquarters, Jabels was typing anxiously on the computer. He paused every few seconds to wipe sweat from his brow.

"You look happy," said Dolores, as she came in with two cups of coffee.

"Yeah, well," replied Jabels. "A city-wide zombie invasion isn't something to take likely or something that's easy to deal with. Still, I finally found the end of the paper trail of the contact that Felix got from that Russian businessman. And we may have killed two other birds by aiming this one stone at another. Look here… It seems this Dominic Falm he mentioned had a place of business in Brewster, a small town in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

"He doesn't own it any more, of course, but get this… The alert system I set up auto-linked me when I looked him up… Apparently, that kid that Maddie brought in the other day who claimed his dad was an alien? He used to work at a part-time job at a restaurant owned by this Falm guy… And a year ago, both he _and _his mother were invited back there by the owner.

"Right before he started acting strange," said Dolores.

"And here's the _stranger _part," replied Jabels. "During that same time, our friend Ezekiel was working there part time on a student visa."

"Three Shadowkind with fire elementalist magic in their blood, who worked there right before they went… crazy…" said Dolores.

"And that may actually be the cause," continued Jabels. "Our 'friend' Dominic was a janni who worked for the efreeti, and was trying to perfect a new entrée that he wanted to include when he catered a banquet to some rich efreeti noble. Seems this entrée used _verdobba _as a main ingredient."

Dolores was about to ask a question, but Jabels quickly answered it.

"It's a nutty, purple tuber native to the Elemental Plane of Fire," he said, "which the efreet – or rather their servants and slaves – cultivate as a food crop much like humans do potatoes. In fact, as far as the efreet are concerned, they may as well _be _potatoes. The thing is, only Shadowkind with a natural affinity for fire can eat them safely; they're toxic to anyone else. He was clearly paying large amounts of money to anyone who fit the bill to sample the work in progress.

"Efreeti aren't the best employers… They're the type who've been known to kill the cook when the food is bad. This guy was taking no chances."

"Says here that the restaurant is a condemned building now…" said Dolores.

"Yes, that's what worries me…" said Jabels. "It happened only three months ago, long after those three left, but… You know all those crazy stories about leftovers being in the fridge too long and mutating into monsters?"

"Don't tell me it actually happened?" asked Dolores, raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe, maybe not," replied Jabels. "Fact is, the place closed down when some accident created a gibbering mouther."

A gibbering mouther was the result of an unsanitary place tainted by magic. Wild magic could spawn them far more often, and places that stored food were more common than others, but it was hard to tell just what would create these beings that seemed to be minor chaos elementals. They looked like heaps of muck with a dozen eyes and mouths that did nothing but babble and gibber (thus their name) and try to eat any living thing smaller than themselves that came too close. And if not killed, they could get _very _big.

"Once the staff were able to kill it, Dante heard about it and got the local health inspectors to come down on them hard," he continued. "Place has been boarded up since, but I sent him to check it out…"

"Good lord…" replied Dolores

"Relax…" added Jabels. "Sofia is going along for backup, and they can handle another one if there is one. What's the worst that could happen?"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**THE DUKE OF DEMISE (Monster Card)**

**Fiend/Dark/Fusion/Effect/Lvl6/2,000ATK/1,700DEF**

_Headless Knight + The Earl of Demise_

**Effect: **Can only be Special Summoned via Fusion Summon. During each of your Standby Phases, either pay 500 Life Points or destroy this card. This card cannot be destroyed by battle.

_Note: "The Duke of Demise" was first used by Bakura in the original anime episode "Spiritual Awakening"._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**NIGHTMARE MIRROR (Trap Card)**

**Normal Trap**

**Image: **A mirror with a violet frame, a bat-like gargoyle on top and a skull below, with a stand shaped like two talons. The reflection of a robed, hooded man is within.

**Effect: **Activate by discarding 1 card from your hand when your opponent declares an attack. Negate the attack and inflict 1,000 points of damage to your opponent.

_Note: "Nightmare Mirror" was first used by Marik in the original anime episode "The Darkness Returns (Part 2)"._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**CASTLE OF PHANTASMS (Monster Card)**

**Fiend/Dark/Effect/Lvl4/1,000ATK/2,000DEF**

**Effect: **This card's name is considered to be "Castle of Dark Illusions". When this card is Normal Summoned in Attack Position, switch it to face-up Defense Position. Zombie-Type Monsters require 1 less Tribute to Tribute Summon.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**AZENWRATH (Monster Card)**

**Zombie/Dark/Fusion/Effect/Lvl7/2,700ATK/2,200DEF**

_Castle of Dark Illusions + 1 Zombie-Type Monster_

**Effect: **Can only be summoned via Fusion Summon, and only with the above-named Fusion Material Monsters. If this card is destroyed by battle, you may banish the Zombie-Type monster used in its Fusion Summon from your Graveyard to select 2 monsters with the same name from your deck, each with a Level no more than half that of the banished monster, and Special Summon them. Then, if there is a monster with the same name as the Special Summoned monsters in your Graveyard, Special Summon that monster. Monsters summoned by the effect of "Azenwrath" are destroyed during the End Phase of the turn.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**PUMPKING THE DARK AGENT (Monster Card)**

**Zombie/Dark/Effect/Lvl4/1,500ATK/0DEF**

**Effect:** This card gains 100 Attack Points for every Pumpkin Counter on each "Pumprincess the Princess of Ghosts" you control in your Spell/Trap Zone. If this card is destroyed by battle, you may Special Summon 1 "Pumpking the King of Ghosts" from your Graveyard.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**QUEEN PUMPKING (Monster Card)**

**Zombie/Dark/Effect/Lvl6/2,200ATK/1,800DEF**

**Effect: **If you control a face-up "Pumpking" monster (other than a "Queen Pumpking) and/or a Pumprincess the Princess of Ghosts" on the field or treated as a Continuous Spell Card: Once per turn, you may destroy 1 Spell or Trap Card controlled by your opponent.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**PUMPKING'S KNIGHT (Monster Card)**

**Zombie/Dark/Effect/Lvl8/2,700ATK/2,000DEF**

**Effect: **You can Special Summon this card by Tributing 3 "Pumpking" monsters and/or monsters named "Pumprincess the Princess of Ghosts" (either on the field or treated as Continuous Spell Cards). If Special Summoned this way, send the top 3 cards from your opponent's deck to the Graveyard. For each monster sent to the Graveyard in this manner, you may select 1 face-up monster on the field and assign 1 monster sent to the Graveyard via this effect to the selected monster. Either increase or decrease the selected monster on the field by the base ATK of the assigned monster sent to the Graveyard. (If more than 1 monster is sent to the Graveyard, you may not select or assign the same monster twice.)

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**SAVAGE EMPEROR OF YAMIMAKAI (Monster Card)**

**Fiend/Dark/Xyz/Effect/Rank6/2,200ATK/1,800DEF**

_2 Level 6 Fiend-Type Monsters_

**Effect:** If only Normal Monsters are used as Xyz Materials in an Xyz Summon of this card: When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, Special Summon any monsters whose cards were attached to it as Xyz Materials when it was destroyed.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**BLACK STEEL GUARDIAN (Monster Card)**

**Fiend/Dark/Xyz/Effect/Rank4/1,300ATK/?DEF**

_2 Level 4 Fiend-Type Normal Monsters_

**Effect: **Can only be summoned via Xyz Summon. The DEF of this card becomes the combined DEF of the monsters used as Xyz Materials to Xyz Summon it. Your opponent cannot attack Fiend-Type monsters you control except for "Black Steel Guardian".

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**LADY DERVISH (Monster Card)**

**Warrior/Earth/Xyz/Effect/Rank7/2,400ATK/1,700DEF**

_2 Level 7Monsters_

**Effect:** Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to Tribute a Normal Monster; banish 1 card your opponent controls. If you do, this card is the only monster that may attack that turn.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**INFERNAL INQUISITOR (Trap Card)**

**Continuous Trap**

**Image: **Succubus Knight and Garoozis kneeling in front of the judge from Imperial Order; lurking behind the judge is Breaker the Magical Warrior, dressed in black and holding an evil-looking staff in place of his sword and shield.

**Effect: **Each time a Fiend-Type monster you control is destroyed, place 1 Authoritarian Counter on this card. You can expend an Authoritarian Counter to increase or decrease the Level of a face-up Normal Monster you control by 1; you cannot use the effect of "Infernal Inquisitor" on the same monster more than once in the same turn.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Jemorille: Whether he knew his words were tempting fate or in complete disregard for Murphy's Law, we may never know. Still, Jabels was wise to send backup with Dante on this mission, because it wouldn't be as easy as he assumed. **_

_**Nor would it be as simple. Shadowchasers, Dante and Sofia included, know enough to expect the unexpected, but what they'd find at that condemned restaurant would push the bounds of believability more than usual. Still, with what had happened last night, perhaps it was best to assume you couldn't count on anything. **_

"_**Poker Face" is coming soon.**_

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Shadowchaser Files: Organizations**

**The Fellowship of Galatea; Those that the Great Treaty Forgot**

In the one-thousand years that the Shadowchasers have existed, the Great Treaty has undergone countless changes and revisions. Laws are changed, new races of Shadow become known and classified, and current races become outlaws. Certain races, like ogres and trolls, are too unintelligent or uncivilized to be protected by the Great Treaty. However, in all of this time, one long-standing race capable of sentience, sapience, and civilization has slid through the cracks.

Doll golems, intelligent constructs, have existed since before the Shadowchasers, but have always been classified by the Great Treaty in the same way as most golems, in that they are constructs created for jobs and not truly sentient. This mistake has always stood, despite many well-crafted doll golems holding sentience and intelligence, and, until recently, this was never challenged.

Trouble began when Jim Henson and his Creature Shop created the Muppets, some of the finest doll golems ever constructed. These living puppets possessed sentience, sapience, civility, emotion, personality, and even senses of humor, and later even had additional works done on them to allow them to change into human form. Despite this, however, they never contested the Treaty because they never had a need to - to this day, they've never had legal trouble nor been in any real life-threatening danger. Nonetheless, this inspired future events.

One day, a theater troupe of elves created six doll golems to perform in a traveling production of Avenue Q. Surprisingly, these constructs had intelligence on par with the Muppets and personalities based on the characters that they played. However, like many others, the elves saw these new creations as no more than talking golems and treated them as such, leaving the six very unhappy, made worse by the suicide of one after it was unable to satisfy a basic part of its implanted personality. Furthermore, the doll golems were scheduled to be turned back into mere felt puppets when the play's tour ended. Fearing for their existence, the remaining doll golems fled and attempted to seek aid from the Muppets, attracting the attention of a nearby Shadowchaser named Sonya Clarkson. After hearing their story, Sonya agreed to argue their case, and, with Jalal's assistance, earned the golems treatment (but not legal status) as intelligent beings. As an act of apology, the elves even transferred the constructs' spirits into new bodies made of modeling clay.

This incident alerted both Jalal and the doll golems to the Great Treaty's oversight, and caused both of them considerable personal distress. For the first time in centuries, Jalal began to truly question what defines intelligence—since doll golems are constructs, and therefore created, their intelligence, however great, is artificial and ultimately decided by their creators, proving that they do not have free will. Ergo, if a particularly smart doll golem commits a crime, who is to be punished: the creator or the construct. (When arcane golems were mentioned by the doll golems' supporters, it was debated that they could be seen as an exception to this, as they were given free will by a burst of wild magic and can only be created by other arcane golems; an argument more valid than most doll golems care to admit.)

The five doll golems, on the other hand, decided that they would do all they could to have their race protected by the Great Treaty, and figured that the best way to prove themselves as civilized was to form a civilization. For this, their leader Kate Monster visited Dist, the Construct King, to create new life. With his assistance they created many new doll golems out of modeling clay, and as a nod to their original purpose, each one is given the name, appearance, and personality of a character from a Broadway musical. The new society was named the Fellowship of Galatea, which is both the name of both a doll golem from Greek myth (possibly given life via divine intervention, if the myth is to be believed) and a nod to her sculptor Pygmalion, whose name is also that of the classic play that inspired My Fair Lady.

Currently the Fellowship of Galatea, currently around thirty in number and slowly growing, have registered as US citizens and work honest jobs, all of them as actors working day jobs. They are based in Los Angeles and observe no uniform religion—all members are free to choose any they like, or none at all. Their affluence is impressive, as they neither eat nor sleep and even small salaries add up when you work two or three day jobs and never buy food. Through peaceful measures (and with the Muppets' support), they continue to try and prove themselves worthy of the Treaty's recognition, hoping to one day be accepted.

Many of their supporters are "cautiously optimistic", but admit that changes of this scope to _any _large treaty can often take _years _and have unintended implications. Unfortunately, even though this subject has now been recognized, the debate may rage on forever…

**Story Ideas:** An appearance by the Fellowship of Galatea would almost certainly emphasize their cause. Though its members are good by nature (one of the three cardinal rules to which characters they create, along with "no children" and "no characters strongly driven by sexual satisfaction"), that does not make them harmless. It would be entirely believable that an outspoken member would commit a crime and demand to be arrested to prove their cause.

On the other hand, the Fellowship's members are eager to get on the Shadowchasers' good side, and would likely be willing to assist whenever possible. Due to their acting abilities and the malleable nature of their clay bodies, they are natural masters of disguise that are excellent for spy work.

**Deck Suggestions: ** Every member of the Fellowship of Galatea possesses a Duel Disk and deck in anticipation of the day they may need to duel a Shadowchaser, or just for the enjoyment.

Their leader Kate Monster uses an original deck of Method Actor monsters (see Shadowchasers: Miscellaneous Files for details), but all other members are free to choose whatever suits them, and therefore just about any deck would be welcome in their hands. Just as examples, Seymour, based on the main character of Little Shop of Horrors, would likely use a Plant deck, while R.T. Tugger from Cats (members of the Fellowship of Galatea need not be modeled after human characters—some are considerably anthropomorphized animal characters) would probably favor a Cat deck similar to Cathy's. All in all, any deck used by one of these doll golems is entirely up to the writer's choice.

_Credit for the Fellowship of Galatea goes to Fanfic author MultiplePersonas; for more of the history of this organization, read "Shadowchasers: Miscellaneous Files"._


End file.
